
Class _Z: 
Book__ 



SMITHSONIAN DEPOSIT 



ANCIENT HTSTOKY: 



FROM THE 



DISPERSION OF THE SONS OF NOE, 

TO THE 

BATTLE OF ACTIUM 

AND 

tffrqi 0f tire Sfnnm gcpMix fata m tfugb*. 

By PETER FREDET, D.D. 

PROFESSOR OF HISTORY IN ST.' MART'S COLLEGE, BALTIMORE, 
AUTHOR OF "MODERN HISTORY." 



Htatoria testis tempo™, lux veritatis, vita memori*, magistm vite, mmtia vefastetis 

CW. lib. ii. tfe Oraf. c. ix., n. 36. 



Jbwrtfi Edition, carefully Revised, Enlarged and Improved. 



BALTIMORE: 
PUBLISHED BY JOHN MURPHY & CO. 

No. 178 MARKET STREET. 

PITTSBURG....OEOEOE QUIGLEY. 

LONDON....C. DOLMAN, No. 61 NEW BOND STREET 

1854. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1851, by 

JOHN MURPHY & CO. 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Maryland. 



STEREOTYPED BY L. JOHNSON AND CO. 
PHILADELPHIA. 



PRINTED BY C. SHERMAN. 



ZD5«! 



F^ 



PREFACE. 



Besides the many advantages resulting from the general knowledge 
of history, there are various inducements for the study of ancient his- 
tory in particular. The interest naturally attached to the lives of re- 
markable persons, the revolutions, the civil or military transactions, 
manners and customs of remote ages, the connection which they have 
with the leading branches of polite literature, the facility which they 
afford for the understanding of the Greek and Latin classics, and of 
many historical books of the Old Testament, are surely reasons well cal- 
culated to convince every one of the importance of ancient history. Such 
at least, was the opinion of the author of this volume. Aware of the 
difficulties which attend historical compositions, he has taken every 
precaution not to introduce into its pages any thing incorrect, or not 
substantiated by some authority worthy of credit. To effect his pur- 
pose, he has spared neither time nor trouble, and has imposed on him- 
self the task of assiduous reseai'ch in the best sources of information, 
and consulted the most approved writers, both ancient and modern. 

Equal care has been taken to avoid prolixity and excessive brevity ; 
because, on the one hand, the generality of readers and students have 
not sufficient leisure for the perusal of lengthy works ; and, on the 
other, excessive brevity strips history of its principal usefulness and 
interest, by crowding together, within a few pages, a multitude of 
events with but few particulars and circumstances, and, consequently, 
without adequate means to distinguish the facts with precision, and to 
state with accuracy their various degrees of importance. Whatever 
may be, in some respects, the utility of a mere compendium, it certainly 
cannot equal that of a more copious history, when written in a proper 
spirit; a history in which all prominent transactions, being accompanied 
with suitable developments, appear in a more striking light, and can 
thus be easily and duly appreciated from facts of secondary importance. 
For the same reason, and by the help of instructive details, the more 
copious history is susceptible of a degree of interest which can never 
be imparted to the mere abbreviation. 

It has, likewise, been deemed far better (as in our Modern History) 
not to give a separate account of each nation, but to carry on the his- 
tory of all the nations of antiquity together, by connecting its various 
parts as far as might be consistent with the nature and the succession 
of events. Not only has this method been adopted by the ablest histo- 
rians, such as Herodotus, Polybius, Justin, Prideaux, Petavius, Rollin, 
etc.. but it is manifestly more conformable to the course of nature : for, 
nations do not exist in an isolated manner ; they live, act, and progress 
together in the succession of ages ; they incessantly come in contact 
with one another, either by hostile or by friendly relations. Social and 
political pre-eminence belongs sometimes to one, sometimes to another. 
Now these essential features must either disappear, or be very imper- 
fectly represented in a historical work which, professing to treat of all 



4 PREFACE. 

the great nations of the earth, does not connect them in one narrative, 
but treats of every one separately. The mind, in this case, instead of 
taking a grand view of the whole, is confined to a consideration of de- 
sultory subjects ; the memory becomes confused by the multiplicity of 
particular histories, and, in the end, is rendered almost totally unable 
to distinguish what belongs to each of them. Add to this the inconve- 
nience of being obliged to resort continually to repetitions or references, 
whenever mention is made of events in which two or more nations are 
concerned, as is always the case in foreign wars, coalitions, and 
treaties of peace. 

The truth of these remarks is strongly supported by the testimony 
of Polybius, a Greek historian, not less admired for the solidity of his 
judgment than for the extent of his learning. "Whoever," says he, 
(General Hist., b. i. c. 1,) "is persuaded that the study of particular 
histories is alone sufficient to convey a perfect view and knowledge of 
the whole, may very properly be compared with one, who, on surveying 
the divided members of a body that was once endued with life, should 
persuade himself that he had thence obtained a just conception of all 
the comeliness and active vigour which it had received from nature. 
But let these broken parts be again placed in order, restored to all 
their first activity and life, and be once more offered to his view, he 
will then be ready to acknowledge, that all his former notions were as 
remote from the truth as the shadows of a dream are different from re- 
alities. For, though some faint conception of the whole may, perhaps, 
arise from a careful examination of the parts, no distinct or perfect 
knowledge can ever be expected from it. In the same manner, it must 
also be confessed, that particular relations are by no means capable of 
yielding any clear or extensive view into general history ; and that the 
only method which can render this kind of study both entertaining and 
instructive, is that which draws together all the several events, and 
ranges them in their due place and order, distinguishing also their con- 
nection and their difference." 

This method, then, (however common, at present, the opposite prac- 
tice,) is by far preferable to any other. Should, however, any one still 
prefer to read and study the history of each nation separately, even 
that he may easily find in the present work, by perusing the table of 
contents, and selecting thence all the titles and pages which belong to 
the history of the same nation ; e. g. as to the Carthaginians, pp. 60, 
148, 214, 271, 274-302, and 377 ; and for Grecian history, pp, 35-43, 
75-89, 125, 130-148, 1G4-207, 217-261, 304-310, and 319. The same 
for other nations, Persians, Romans, etc. 

In order to render the whole work still more useful and easy, a few 
prominent facts called epochs, are selected, to which all the other events 
that immediately precede or follow, may be easily referred. For the 
same reason, care is taken not to perplex the mind of the reader with 
the various systems of chronology that are, or have been, in use among 
the learned. Throughout this volume that system is used which has 
been the most commonly adopted, and according to which there 
elapsed about four thousand years from the creation of the world to 
the coming of our Saviour. Thus, the years for Ancient History will 
be simply dated before the birth of Christ in their regular succession, as 
they are dated from the birth of Christ for Modern History. 

The usual notice of the religion, government, laws, and manners of 



PREFACE. 5 

the different nations of antiquity, -will find its proper place in those 
periods of their existence in which any one of them acted a prominent 
part in the history of the world. By being thus distributed, and placed 
at certain intervals, particulars of this kind will not be tedious, and 
may rather contribute to the interest of the work, by introducing 
variety into the otherwise monotonous detail of political and military 
transactions. The same objects, besides, are treated of under a 
general point of view, and at greater length, in a separate part towards 
the end of the volume. 

Should it appear to any one that too much praise for virtue is be- 
stowed on the ancient heroes of Greece and Rome, Ave would beg leave 
to observe, 1. That we nowhere intend to represent their virtues as 
perfect ; on the contrary, we repeatedly made the remark, that the 
best moral qualities of the ancients were often disgraced in the same 
persons by the co-existence of gross vices, and still more frequently 
tainted by the base motive of ambition or vanity. 2. It is neverthe- 
less true, that many admirable actions of patriotism, justice, clemency, 
magnanimity, continency, temperance, etc., were performed by the 
Egyptians, Persians, Greeks, and Romans of old. This fact cannot be 
denied ; but, while it should serve as a severe rebuke to those Chris- 
tians who are not ashamed to be less virtuous than pagans, it merely 
shows, what is otherwise known from the principles of the true religion, 
that man is not universally and essentially corrupt ; that he is free to 
do good or evil, and that the Almighty is ever ready to lend him a 
gracious assistance in the discharge of his duties. It shows, on the 
other hand, that social virtues and deeds of merely natural honesty can 
be found in false religions, even among the heathens, however far from 
the kingdom of God ; and consequently, that they cannot, by them- 
selves, afford any ground for hope, and much less for security, with 
regard to the future state of man's immortal soul. 

Our work opens with a brief sketch of the history of our first pa- 
rents, of their primitive innocence, their subsequent disobedience and 
fall, and of the awful catastrophe brought about by the crimes of their 
descendants, and which destroyed all mankind, with the exception of 
one virtuous family destined by Almighty God to repeople the earth 
after the deluge. We however leave the particulars of these momen- 
tous events to Sacred History, to which they peculiarly belong. Our 
object being the civil history of the ancient world, the present volume 
ought properly to begin with the dispersion of the sons of Noe, which 
was soon followed by the foundation of the first states and empires. 
From that remote period, our History proceeds as far as the change of 
the Roman republic into a monarchy, or the reign of Ccesar Augustus, 
when a new and still more important era began. This narrative in- 
cludes an interval of about twenty-two centuries, divided into six parts 
or epochs, as follows: — 

The first part extends from the dispersion of the sons of Noe (B. C. 
2247), to the close of the Trojan war (118-4), including 1063 years. 

The 2d from the close of the Trojan war (B. C. 1184), to the 

building of Rome (B. C. 753), 431 years. 

The 3d from the building of Rome (B. C. 753), to the destruc- 
tion of the Babylonian, and the rise of the Persian empire (B. C. 53G), 
217 years. 

The 4th from the rise of the Persian empire (B. C. 536), to its 

1* 



6 PREFACE. 

overthrow, and the death of Alexander the Great (B. C. 324), ... 

212 years. 

The 5th from the death of Alexander the Great (B. C. 324), to 

the end of the Punic wars and of Grecian independence, or the destruc- 
tion of Carthage and Corinth (B. C. 146), 178 years. 

The 6th from the destruction of Carthage and Corinth (B, C. 

146), to the battle of Actium and change of the Roman commonwealth 
into an empire (B. C. 31), 115 years. 

A 7th part treats of the Laws and Polity, Arts, Manners and Cus- 
toms, of Ancient Nations ; and an appendix adds further information 
about their Literature, and some other points of great interest. 






PUBLISHER'S PREFACE 

TO THE FOURTH EDITION. 



This new edition of Ancient History has been prepared with much 
labour and care by the author. He has not only inserted various im- 
provements into the body of the work, but he has also comprised, in a 
distinct part, a multitude of observations and facts taken from the best 
authors, which it was not possible to introduce into any other portion 
of the volume. This additional part will, it is hoped, be found very use- 
ful to give an insight into the condition, character, social life, and cus- 
toms of early societies ; the more so, as those objects principally have 
been made a matter of notice, which contribute, in a peculiar manner, 
to the welfare and prosperity of states, such as polity, agriculture, 
commerce, etc. Finally, an Appendix has been added, containing 
much information relating to ancient literature and some other im- 
portant subjects. 

This fourth edition of the Ancient is, moreover, accompanied with a 
tenth edition of Modern History, which has also been carefully revised, 
and improved by additions bearing on the late important events, till 
the year of our Lord 1854. Hence, the two works together present a 
complete history of the civilized world throughout the whole duration 
of its existence, from the creation down to our own time, a space of 
5854 years. It is comprised in two large 12mo volumes, of nearly 
equal size, and containing, jointly, upwards of a thousand pages. 

Baltimore, August, 1854. 



CONTENTS. 



PART I. 



FROM THE DISPERSION OP THE SONS OF NOE (B. C. 2247), TO THE CLOSE 
OF THE TROJAN WAR (B.C. 1184). 



Brief introductory account of the 

first ages of the world 13 

The Creation and the Deluge 13 

Dispersion of men after the deluge 

— Beginning of all civil history 16 

Rise of the earliest states 19 

Babylonians, Assyrians, Pheni- 

cians, &c 19 

Egyptians 22 

Fertility and Monuments of Egypt 22 

Kings of Egypt 25 



Page 

Government, laws and manners of 

the ancient Egyptians 29 

Religion of the Egyptians — Ori- 
gin, progress and extent of Idol- 
atry 31 

Barrier opposed to Idolatry 33 

Hebrews or Israelites 33 

Rise and progress of the Grecian 

States 35 

Kingdom of Troy 35 

Siege and destruction of Troy 38 



PART II. 



FROM THE CLOSE OF THE TROJAN WAR (B.C. 1184), TO THE BUILDINQ 
OF ROME (B. C. 753). 



Page 

Political situation of Greece after 

the Trojan war 41 

Grecian colonies and dialects 41 

Assyrian Empire under Ninus and 

Semiramis 43 

Description of Babylon 44 

Semiramis continued — Ninyas 47 

Decline and fall of the first Assy- 
rian Empire 47 

Learning, Industry, Religion, and 



Page 

Manners of the Assyrians and 

Babylonians 49 

The Israelites under their kings... 51 

Reign of Saul 51 

Reign of David 52 

Reign of Solomon 54 

Schism of the Ten Tribes 55 

Kings of Juda from Roboam to 

Achaz — Prophets 55 

Egypt during the second period... 60 

Rise of Carthage 60 



PART III. 



FROM THE BUILDING OF ROME (B.C. 753), TO THE DESTRUCTION OF THE 
BABYLONIAN AND RISE OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE (B. C. 536). 



Page 

Building of Rome 62 

Romulus 64 

Numa Pompilius 68 

Tullus Hostilius 70 

Ancus Martius 72 



Page 

Tarquinius Priscus, or Tarquin the 

Elder 72 

Servius Tullius 73 

Grecian Colonies in Italy, Sicily 

and Gaul 75 

7 



8 



CONTENTS. 



Page 

Greece during the third period.... 78 
Sparta or Lacedaemon — Legisla- 
tion of Lycurgus 78 

Contest between the Spartans and 

the Argives 83 

Messenian Wars 83 

Athens : its revolutions and go- 
vernment — Solon — Pisistratus.. 85 
Second Assyrian, afterwards Ba- 
bylonian Empire : comprising 
also the contemporary history 
of the Medes, Israelites, Jews 

and Egyptians S9 

Kings of Mnive — Theglathpha- 

lasar 89 

Salmanasar 90 

S e n n a cherib 90 

A s a r h a d d o n 91 

Saosduchinus, or Nabuchodono- 
sorl 92 



Paga 

Saracus, or Chinaladanus 94= 

Kings of Babylon — Nabopolassar 95 
Nabuchodonosor IL, or the Great 96 
Decline of the Babylonian Empire 98 

Croesus — the Lydians 99 

Cyrus — the Persians 100 

First campaigns of Cyrus at the 
head of the Persians and 

Medes 101 

Decisive battle of Thymbra or 
Thybarra, between Cyrus and 

Croesus 102 

New Conquests of Cyrus — Fall of 
Babylon — Foundation of the 

Persian Empire 107 

Religion, Government, Laws and 
Manners of the ancient Per- 
sians — Causes of their rapid pro- 
gress, and of their subsequent 
decline Ill 



PART IV. 

FEOM THE FOUNDATION OF THE PERSIAN EMriRE (b. C. 536), TO ITS OVER- 
THROW, AND THE DEATH OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT (B. C. 324). 



Page 

Reign of Cyrus — Death and cha- 
racter of that prince 114 

First successors of Cyrus — Cam- 
byses and Smerdis 118 

Tarquin the Proud, the last of the 
Roman kings 120 

Rome a Republic — Consuls — War 
against Porsenna — Battle of 
Regillus, which insured the ex- 
istence of the commonwealth... 121 

Revolutions in Athens 125 

Persian Empire 126 

Reign of Darius Hystaspes till the 
beginning of his war against 
the Greeks 126 

War between the Greeks and Per- 
sians, commenced under Darius 130 

War between the Greeks and Per- 
sians, continued under Xerxes 135 

War between the Greeks and Per- 
sians, concluded under Arta- 
xerxes-Longimanus 143 

Defeat of the Carthaginians in 
Sicily — Great qualities of Ge- 
lon, prince and sovereign of Sy- 
racuse 148 

The Roman Commonwealth from 
the institution of the Dictator- 



Paga 

ship to the expulsion of the De- 
cemviri 150 

Origin of the office of Dictator.... 150 

Rise of the Plebeian Tribunes 152 

Banishment of Marcius Coriolanus 153 
The Agrarian law — Ambition and 

punishment of Spurius Cassius. 155 
Generosity and patriotism of the 

Fabian family * 156,- 

Dictatorship of Quintius Cincin- 

natus 161 

The laws of the Twelve Tables- 
Tyranny and expulsion of the 

Decemviri 162 

Prosperity and splendor of Athens 
under the administration of 

Pericles 164 

Peloponnesian war 170 

Trial and death of Socrates 180 

Expedition of Cyrus the Younger 
— Retreat of the Ten Thou- 
sand 1S5 

Great qualities and exploits of Age- 
silaus — League against Sparta 

— Peace of Antalcidas 187 

Theban war 191 

General state of Greece at the close 
of the Theban war 200 



CONTENTS. 



Religion, Manners and Institu- 
tions of Greece 201 

Keligion of the Greeks — Oracles.. 201 

National manners of the Greeks — 
Solemn Games 203 

Grecian institutions and schools 
of Philosophy.... 205 

Roman Commonwealth ; from the 
expulsion of the Decemviri, to 
the entire subjection of the 
Latins 207 

Censors, Quaestors, and Military 
Tribunes 207 

Conquest of the cities of Veii and 
Falerii— Camillus 208 

Rome taken by the Gauls 210 

Plebeian Consuls — Patrician JEd- 
iles— Praetors 212 



Page 

Final and complete subjection of 
the Latin tribes to the Roman 

power 213 

Affairs of Sicily and Carthage 214 

Macedonian Kingdom — Reign of 

Philip 217 

Demosthenes and iEschines 221 

Political situation of the Persian 

Empire 224 

Alexander the Great 226 

His accession to the throne, and 

first exploits 226 

Alexander undertakes the con- 
quest of Asia — Fall of the Per- 
sian Empire 229 

Disturbances in Greece — Further 
conquests of Alexander in Asia 
— His return to Babylon, death 
and character 237 



PART V. 

FROM THE DEATH OP ALEXANDER THE GREAT (E. C. 324), TO THE END OP 
THE PUNIC WARS AND OP GRECIAN INDEPENDENCE, OR THE DESTRUC- 
TION OP CARTHAGE AND CORINTH (B. C. 146). 



Page 

Dismemberment and partition of 

Alexander's empire 243 

Kingdom of Egypt 24S 

Kingdom of Syria 250 

Kingdom of Macedon — Sparta un- 
der the con temporary kings Agis 

and Cleomenes 251 

History of the Achaean League 

under Aratus 255 

Achaean League under Philopoe- 

men 258 

Affairs of Carthage and Sicily — 

Agathocles, tyrant of Syracuse 261 
War of the Romans against the 

Samnites 263 

...Its beginning and first results... 263 

...Its renewal and progress 266 

...Its close 260 

War of the Romans against Pyr- 
rhus — Adventures and death of 

that prince 271 

First Punic war 274 

Rome after the first Punic war. ,. 281 



Page 

Carthage after the first Punic war 

— Revolt of the Mercenaries.... 282 
Manners, Government, Character 
and Religion of the Cartha- 
ginians 284 

Second Punic war 286 

Origin of the second Punic war — 
Progress and signal victories of 

Aniiibal 287 

Preponderance regained by the 
Romans — Scipio Africanus — 
Battle of Zama, and conclusion 

of the war 294 

Scipio and Annibal continued 300 

Antiochus the Great, king of Syria 302 

Philip, king of Macedon 304 

Perseus— Fall of Macedon 308 

Eastern nations, especially the 
Jews under the Asmoneans or 

Machabees 310 

Third Punic war and destruction 

of Carthage 317 

End of Grecian independence, and 
destruction of Corinth 319 



10 



CONTENTS. 



PART VI. 



FEOM THE END OP THE PUNIC WARS AND OF GRECIAN INDEPENDENCE, 
OR THE DESTRUCTION OF CARTHAGE AND CORINTH (B. C. 146), TO THE 
BATTLE OF ACTIUM AND CHANGE OF THE ROMAN COM3IONWEALTH INTO 
AN EMPIRE (B.C. 31). 



Page 

Observations on the prodigious in- 
crease of Roman power, and on 
the causes which led to the 
change of the commonwealth 
into an empire 322 

Affairs of the Romans in Spain... 329 

Insurrection in Sicily 331 

Disturbances excited by the Grac- 
chi 332 

Scipio JEniilianus — his death and 
character 336 

War against Jugurtha 339 

Invasion and defeat of the Teu- 
tones and Cimbri 343 

Marius continued — War of the Al- 
lies, or the Confederate War — 
First war against Mithridates 
— Civil war between Marius and 
Sylla— Victories, power, abdi- 
cation and death of Sylla 347 

Exploits of Sertorius in Spain, and 
of Spartacus in Italy 358 

Second war against Mithridates — 
Splendid victories of Lucullus 
— Private life and character of 
this general 361 

War against the pirates — Extra- 
ordinary success and reputation 
of Pompey 366 



Third and last war against Mithri- 
dates — Further conquests of 
Pompey — Affairs of Pontus, Ar- 
menia, Syria and Palestine 367 

Consulate of Cicero • — Catiline's 
conspiracy detected and sup- 
pressed 371 

Cato the Younger , 373 

First Triumvirate — Pompey, J. 
Caesar, and Crassus 377 

Conquest of Gaul by Julius Caesar 382 

Disasteous expedition of Crassus 
against the Parthians 391 

Rival pretensions of Pompey and 
J. Caasar — Civil war — Battle of 
Pharsalia, and death of Pompey 395 

Civil war continued — Victories, 
dictatorship and death of Julius 
Caesar 401 

Rome after the death of Caesar — 
Second Triumvirate, consisting 
of Mark Anthony, Octavius and 
Lepidus — Battle of Philippi, and 
ruin of the republican party .... 407 

Octavius and Mark Anthony con- 
tinued — New civil war — Battle 
of Actium, and change of the 
Roman commonwealth into an 
empire 412 



PART VII. 



LAWS AND POLITY, ARTS, MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF ANCIENT NATIONS. 



Laws and Polity 422 

Agriculture 427 

Commerce 435 

Navigation 442 

Military art 450 

Enlisting and levying of troops... 453 
Immediate preparations for the 
opening of a campaign — Ap- 
pointment of the general — De- 
parture, march, encampment 
and discipline of the army 458 



Page 

Battles and campaigns 462 

Attack and defence of fortified 

places 468 

Close and ordinary results of war 

among the ancients 472 

General manners and customs of 

ancient nations 474 

Appendix 481 

Chronological Table 4D7 

Table of Authors .' 11 



TABLE OF 

THE PRINCIPAL AUTHORS AND WORKS 

RESORTED TO IN THE COMPOSITION OF THIS VOLUME. 



The Historical and Prophetical Books of the Old Testament. 
Josephus : Jewish Antiquities, in twenty books. 



GREEK AUTHORS. 

Herodotus of Halicarnassus, the father of profane history: Nine hooka 
on the history of ancient nations, especially the Persians and Greeks. 

Thucydides : History of the Peloponnesian War. 

Xenophon : Cyropedia — Retreat of the Ten Thousand — Affairs of Greece — 
and Memoirs on Socrates. 

Each of the writings of these three historians is, in its peculiar kind, a mas- 
ter-piece of narrative and style. 

Plato, the celebrated philosopher: Some of his Dialogues. 

Polybius: General History ; remarkable for accuracy of research and depth 
of judgment. It was comprised in forty books, most of which are unfortunately 
lost. 

Plutarch: Lives of the illustrious Greeks and Romans ; a work which, not- 
withstanding its deficiencies in some respects, is perhaps the most useful history 
of Ancient Greece and Rome. 



LATIN HISTORIANS. 

JuSTINUS : Historic Philippica*. 

Q. Curtius : De rebus gestis Alcxandri Magni. 

Titus Livrus: Historia Romana ; with the supplements of Freinshemius. 

FLORUS : Epitome Rerum Romanarum. 

Velleius Paterculus: Epitome Historia;. 

C. SALLUSTIUS : Helium Gatilinarium et Jugnrthinum. , 

J. Cesar: De Bcllo Gallico et Cirili : with the supplements of Hirtius, Z>« 
hello Alexandrino, Africano et Hispaniensi. 

Suetonius: The Hers of Julius Gceaar and Odtavianus Augustus. 

Cornelius Nepos : Vitas excellentium i/nperatorum. 

Most of tho. Latin works just mentioned are classical, and belong to the Au- 
gustan age. 

S. Augustinus: De Civitate Dei; an elaborate and admirable work in 
twenty-two books. 

Horatius Turselinus : Historiarum ah origine mundi Epitome. 1 vol. 
well and elegantly written. 

11 



12 TABLE OF AUTHORS. 



ENGLISH. 






Universal History. Use has been made chiefly of those volumes which 
treat of the ancient Egyptians, Assyrians, Greeks and Eomans. 

C. A. Wiseman: Lectures onthe Connexion between Science and Revealed Re- 
ligion; 1 vol. 8vo. 

Prideaux : The Old and New Testament connected in the history of the 
Jews and neighboring nations. New York edition, 3 vols. 8vo. 

Ferguson : History of the progress and termination of the Roman Republic, 
in six books. 

Kennet : Antiquities of Rome ; Philad. 1822, 1 vol. 8vo. 

Taylor : Manual of Ancient History. New York, 1S45, 1 vol. 8vo. 

FRENCH. 

Anquetil : Precis de Vhistoire universelle ; 8 vols. 8vo. The first volumes, 
comprising the history of ancient nations, have been used. 

Barthelemy : Voyage du jeune Anacharsis en Grcce. Paris edition, 1789, 
9 vols. 

Bosstjet : Discours sur Vhistoire universelle, in three parts. 

D. Calmet : Dietionnaire de la Bible ; 6 vols. 8vo. 

Drioux: Precis de VHistoire Ancienne et de VHistoire Romaine ; 2 vols. 
12mo. 

Gerard : Les Legons de Vhistoire, on Lcttres d'un pere a sonfils sur les f aits 
interessans de Vhistoire universelle. Paris, 1702-1712, 11 vols. 12mo. 

Goguet : De Vorigine des Lois, des Arts et des Sciences, et de leurs progres 
chez les anciens peu])les. The sixth edition, Paris, 1820, 3 vols. 8vo. 

Jtjllien: Histoirede la Grece ancienne. Tours, 1S40, 1vol. 12mo. 

Lenglet-Dufresnoy : Tablettes chronologiques, the first vol. 

Loriquet : Histoire Ancienne et Histoire Romaine. 1 vol. 12mo, or 2 vols. 
ISmo. 

Montesquieu: Grandeur et Decadence des Ro7nains. 1 vol. 12mo. 

RoLLiN : Traite des Etudes ; especially the third and fourth vols., which 
treat of history. 

Histoire Ancienne. Paris edition, 1769-1772, 13 vols. 12mo. 

Histoire Romaine, continued by Crevier. Paris, 1769-1781, 

16 vols. 12mo. 

Y^titot : Revolutions Romaines. Besancon, 2 vols. 12mo. 



ANCIENT HISTORY. 



PART I. 



FROM THE DISPERSION OP THE SONS OF NOE (b. C. 2247), TO THE 
CLOSE OF THE TROJAN WAR (B. C. 1184). 



BRIEF INTRODUCTORY ACCOUNT OF THE FIRST 
AGES OF THE WORLD. 

THE CREATION AND THE DELUGE.* 

"We learn from the sacred pages that God created the world 
in the space of six days. The concluding part of this great 
work of his omnipotence was the creation of our first parents, 
Adam and Eve. God formed the body of Adam of the slime 
of the earth, and animated that body with a soul, or spiritual 
substance, which he endowed with understanding and free-will 
in order that man might know and love his Creator. The Lord 
then, having "cast a deep sleep" upon Adam, took one of his 
ribs, and with it he formed Eve, 'the first woman, and the 
mother of all men (b. c. about 4000). 

Adam and Eve were created in the state of innocence, and 
placed in a most beautiful garden or earthly paradise. God 
allowed them to eat of all the fruits of that delightful abode, 
except the fruit of one tree, which he forbade them to eat, under 
the penalty of becoming subject to death and other evils. 

This precept, although an easy one, was not long complied 
with by Adam and Eve. The devil, or fallen angel, whom 
pride had made an enemy of God, being jealous of their happi- 
ness, resolved to destroy it, by inducing them to transgress the 
divine command. Under the form of a serpent, he addressed 

* From the Book of Genesis, i. — ix. 

2 13 



14 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part L 

Eve, as the weaker of the two, and suggested to her that, if 
they should eat of the forbidden fruit, "their eyes would be 
opened, and they would be as gods, knowing good and evil." 
Eve, seduced by the promises of the tempter, not only ate of 
the fruit, but offered some to Adam, who, through a criminal 
condescension for his wife, shared / in her disobedience. Their 
eyes were indeed opened, but in a manner quite contrary to their 
expectation ; they saw the good which they had lost, and the 
abyss of evils into which they had culpably fallen. 

The Lord summoned them before him ; and, after pronouncing 
his malediction against the serpent, the occasion of their fall, he 
condemned the woman to bring forth children in sorrow, and to 
be subject to man; and man himself to eat his bread in the 
sweat of his brow, till his body should return into its original 
dust. He then drove them from the earthly paradise, and 
placed at the entrance an angel with a naming sword, to prevent 
their return. Thus did Adam and Eve lose, in a moment, both 
for themselves and for their posterity, the state of primitive in- 
nocence, and, besides bringing a train of spiritual evils into the 
world, doomed themselves and their descendants to hard labor, 
misery, disease and death. 

God, however, did not leave our first parents without hope. 
He promised to them, that of the woman would one day be born 
a Saviour, who should crush the serpent's head, that is, destroy 
the empire of the devil, rescue mankind from the slavery of 
sin, and become, "to all that obey him, the cause of eternal 
salvation."* 

Adam had many children ) but the Holy Scripture mentions 
only three in particular, viz., Cain, Abel and Seth. Cain, per- 
ceiving that the sacrifices of Abel were more acceptable than 
his own in the sight of God, and yielding to the influence of 
jealousy and hatred, became his brother's murderer. In punish- 
ment of this crime, he was condemned to be a fugitive and 
vagabond upon the earth, and became the father of a posterity 
wicked like himself. 

On the contrary, piety was preserved among the descendants 
of Seth, the third of the three brothers. When Adam died, 
Seth succeeded him in the capacity of patriarch, and imitated 
the virtue of Abel. His son Enos began to use solemnity in the 
worship and invocation of God ; and Henoch, the sixth patriarch 
after Adam, deserved for his eminent piety to be taken by God 
from this world, and be reserved to come in the end of ages, 
to prepare men for the second coming of Christ. The posterity 
* Heb. v. 9. 



INTRODUCTION. 15 

of Setli continued long in their adherence to virtue and religion, 
and for that reason were called the sons of God ; whereas the 
descendants of Cain, following in the footsteps of their father, 
were called the children of men. The former having, at length, 
begun to contract marriages with the latter, were gradually per- 
verted, and forgot their allegiance to their Creator. 

The corruption infected all mankind, except Noe and his 
family. Almighty God, to use the astonishing expression of Scrip- 
ture, repented that he had created men, and resolved to destroy 
them by a general deluge, with the exception of the just Noe, 
who had found grace before him. He therefore commanded this 
holy patriarch to build an immense ark or vessel, the form and 
dimensions of which he himself specified. Noe spent a hundred 
years in its construction, and entered it with his three sons, 
Sem, Cham and Japheth, his wife and the wives of his sons. 
He also, in compliance with the divine command, took within 
some animals of every kind of those which move in the air or 
upon the earth. 

God then caused an incessant rain to fall during forty days 
and forty nights ; and the sea overflowed till it rose fifteen cubits 
above the summit of the loftiest mountains. When the waters 
began to subside, the ark rested upon Mount Ararat, in Armenia, 
and Noe left it, having remained in it during a whole year. 

His first care was to offer a solemn sacrifice to God, in thanks- 
giving for his wonderful preservation from the general destruc- 
tion of mankind. The Almighty accepted the sacrifice. He 
blessed Noe and his children, promised them that the earth 
would never again be wasted by a general flood, and set the rain- 
bow in the clouds as a sign and pledge of his promise. 

Immediately after the deluge, the duration of man's life began 
to be much shorter. A multitude of causes, more or less con- 
nected with this great catastrophe, greatly impaired the original 
strength of his constitution, and the various alterations under- 
gone by nature itself continually warned men how far, even in 
regard to this visible world, the justice of God had been pro- 
voked by their crimes. 

Such was the beginning of the world ; most happy, at first ; 
then a prey to countless evils ; but, viewed in reference to God, 
always admirable. In the history of these extraordinary events, 
we see men always under the ruling hand of their Maker, created 
by his word, preserved by his goodness, governed by his wisdom, 
punished by his justice, delivered by his mercy, and constantly 
subject to his power.* 

* See Bossuet's Discourse on Universal History, Part II, ch. 1. 



16 ANCIENT HISTORY. Pakt I. 

DISPERSION OF MEN AFTER THE DELUGE— BEGINNING OF 
ALL CIVIL HISTORY.— b. c. 2247. 

A new order of things had commenced. Noe with his family 5 
consisting of eight persons, had once more taken possession of 
the earth lately covered with the waters of the deluge. They 
began to cultivate those arts which are necessary for the support 
of human life, and which had been known from the beginning 
of the world, that is, agriculture, the pastoral art, and that of 
procuring clothes and dwellings. Having established their resi- 
dence in the fertile plains of Sennaar, they continued to live 
together as members of one family, as long as their limited num- 
ber and the unity of their language permitted. This situation 
of mankind after the deluge lasted at least one hundred years. 

When their number became so great that it was very difficult 
for them to dwell any longer together, they unanimously resolved 
to build a city and a tower of extraordinary height, so as to 
render their names famous, before they should be scattered 
abroad into all lands. They used for that purpose brick instead 
of stones, and slime instead of mortar; and they appeared de- 
termined fully to carry out their design. But this project, 
inspired by vanity, highly displeased Almighty God. He con- 
founded their language, and by thus preventing them from any 
longer understanding each other, compelled them to abandon 
their undertaking. This caused the place to be called Babel, 
that is, confusion, " because there," says the Scripture,* "the 
language of the whole earth was confounded ; and from thence 
the Lord scattered them abroad (according to their kindreds- and 
tongues) upon the face of all countries." 

As the various branches of Noe's family became more nume- 
rous, they gradually reached and peopled the different parts of 
the globe. Mountains and forests, rivers, and afterwards seas, 
were crossed, and new dwellings continually rose on the face of 
the earth. Many of these colonies, owing to peculiar difficul- 
ties, fell into a state of profound ignorance and barbarism. 
Others, on the contrary, especially such as settled in the vicinity 
of the spot from which they had originally departed, laid the 
foundation of well-organized societies. Shortly after the first 
dispersion of men, we begin to see the polish of manners, the 
building of towns and cities, the formation of political states, 
the enactment of laws, and the introduction of new arts or the 
improvement of those already known, together with the fruits 
of commerce and industry. This is then the beginning of all 
* Gen. xi, 1—9. 



b. c. 2247. DISPERSION OF MEN. 17 

civil history. There is, in fact, no authentic record of early 
times which does not date the first origin of nations or civil 
societies from this important epoch. 

The Egyptians, the Chaldeans, the Indians, the Chinese and 
others may have, in order to gratify their vanity, freely indulged 
in the dreams of their imagination, and claimed an antiquity of 
ten thousand, thirty-six thousand, seventy thousand, and even 
two or four hundred thousand years. These absurd pretensions, 
the offspring of ignorance or national pride, are not only destitute 
of all proof, and contrary to the inspired and only certain record 
of primitive times,* but are likewise opposed to each other, to 
facts, and to every document worthy of credit. Many learned 
critics, who have applied to the serious investigation of ancient 
chronology, after separating authentic and well-connected histo- 
rical traditions from false and spurious ones, have unanimously 
come to the conclusion that the origin even of the most ancient 
states cannot be traced farther than to a time when, according to 
the chronology of Scripture, the earth had already been for a 
long time inhabited.")" 

The case has been repeatedly proved to be the same with 
regard to the astronomical monuments of early nations. The 
Egyptian zodiacs, whose pretended antiquity was re-echoed by 
infidels as irreconcilable with sacred history, have been found, 
upon closer examination, to be scarcely as ancient as the begin- 
ning of the Christian era. The Chinese calculations could not 
have been made at an earlier period than the seventh or eighth 
century before the coming of Christ - the Indian tables are of a 
still more recent and much later date j and the famous observa- 
tions of the Chaldeans, even admitting them to be perfectly 
authentic, do not sujDpose a higher antiquity than the year B. c. 
2233, which is nearly the date of the tower of Babel. It is 
indeed probable that this tower, although left unfinished in con- 
sequence of the confusion of tongues, served, under the beautiful 
and serene sky of Chaldea, for the astronomical observations of 
those who remained in the adjacent country. Thus the veracity 
of Moses' narrative, instead of being impeached, is sustained by 
the researches of true science, and by whatever is authentic in 
tire history of the primitive world.")* 

* The books of Moses, Genesis, etc. 

f See Dr. Wiseman's Lectures on the Connection between Science and Re- 
vealed Religion, lect. vii and viii ;. Duclot, Bible vengee, vol. i, Observations 
Preliminaires ; Goguet, De V Origine des Lois, desArts ct des Sciences, vol. iii, 
Dissertation sur les Anfiquitcs des Babgloniens, des Egxjptiens et des Chinois ; 
Gerard, Lecons sur VHisloire, vol. i, lettre ix ; Freret, Memoires de V Aca- 
demic des Inscriptions, vol. xviii — 4to, p. 294, ct vol. xxxix — 12mo, p. 490. 

2* 



18 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part I. 

Another circumstance connected with the dispersion of men 
must not be omitted. Notwithstanding their separation and in- 
creased multitude, they always preserved many proofs of the 
identity of their origin. Whatever shades of difference were 
introduced in the development of their mental powers, and in 
the colour, strength and other external qualities of their bodies, 
it was not difficult to account for these changes or apparent 
diversities, by the difference of education, habits, manners, dress, 
diet, country and climate, especially where they were under the 
continual influence of a tropical sun. In other respects, there 
always remained in them all the same essential organization, the 
same propensities and feelings, the same internal and external 
faculties, in a word, a multitude of indelible features manifestly 
denoting the unity of the source from which all descended.* 

The languages themselves, notwithstanding their surprising 
variety, give ample testimony to the same important fact. Vast 
and profound researches of latter times have shown, first, that all 
the languages of the earth may be reduced to three great fami- 
lies ; secondly, that these three, notwithstanding their wide dif- 
ference, bear however so many signs of affinity to each other, 
that they must have been originally united in one, from which 
they drew those essential elements common to them all ;-j- and, 
thirdly, that the separation was effected by some extrinsic and 
sudden cause. All this perfectly agrees with every circumstance 
mentioned by Moses in connection with the confusion of tongues 
at the tower of Babel. 

Hence it also happened that all the great events previous to 
the dispersion of men, were preserved in the notice and recollec- 
tion of the different nations which owed their immediate origin 
to that separation. The creation of the universe, and particu- 
larly of man; the division of time into weeks of seven days; the 
golden age, or state of primitive innocence and happiness ; the 
iron age, or subsequent period of misery, disorder and crime; 
the long life of the earliest generations ; the boldness and im- 
piety of the giants; the justice of God displayed in the deluge; 
the preservation of a just man and his family : in a word, all the 

* For this and the following remarks, see again Dr. Wiseman, Duclot, 
Gerard, in the works above cited, besides many other publications, to 
which they themselves refer. 

f This is what the ablest men in the study of languages now unani- 
mously acknowledge. " It is," says Schlegel in one of his memoirs, 
"my full impression, produced by the affinity of languages, that the 
various tribes and families of the human race descend from one parent 
stock ; and my conclusion on this point will appear to every one the 
more exact, as it is the more thoroughly examined." 



RISE OF THE EARLIEST STATES. 19 

important transactions which occurred before the confusion of 
tongues, remained conspicuous in the remembrance, of posterity, 
and vestiges of this remembrance were left in the history, monu- 
ments, writings and poetry, of almost all nations. Events, on the 
contrary; which happened after this period, however remarkable 
in themselves, were not universally known : a manifest proof of 
the fact, that there no longer existed a general bond of commu- 
nication between men, whereas they had before constituted but 
one family, descending from one common parent. 



EISE OF THE EARLIEST STATES. 
BABYLONIANS, ASSYRIANS, PHENICIANS, &c. 

The ancient world was therefore divided among the three sons 
of Noe, Sem, Cham, Japheth, and their descendants. Cham's 
family occupied Palestine, Egypt and other parts of Africa. The 
posterity of Japheth peopled nearly all Europe, and the north 
of Asia. Central Asia was occupied by the children of Sem.* 
The names of these first founders of all the nations of the earth 
were for a long time remembered and preserved in the countries 
in which they originally settled. 

Among the cities which they built, the most remarkable were 
Babylon, Ninive and Sidon. f 

Babylon, situated on the banks of the great river Euphrates, 
was founded by Nemrod, a grandson of Cham; and Ninive, on 
the left bank of the Tigris, by Assur, a son of Sem, whence 
came the name of Assyrians. We will speak, in another place, 
at greater length, of these two famous cities, and of the extraor- 
dinary degree of splendor and magnificence they subsequently 
attained. 

Sidon in Phenicia, on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean 
sea, was probably built by Sidon, the eldest son of Chanaan, and 
a great-grandson of Noe. On the same coast was also founded 
the city of Tyre, a colony of Sidon, which it afterwards greatly 
surpassed in celebrity, wealth and power. The inhabitants of 
that country, confined in a narrow tract between the sea on the 
one side and a ridge of mountains on the other, and finding in 
the soil but few resources for their subsistence, directed their 
attention to navigation and commerce. Their exertions, con* 

* See Genesis, ch. x, "which, independently of the divine inspiration, 
is the most admirable monument of ancient history and geography. 
f Same ch. ver. 10, 11, 15 and 19. 



20 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part I. 

stantly aided by experience, were so successful, that they passed 
for the most skilful seamen and the most industrious merchants 
of the ancient world, nay for the very inventors of maritime trade. 

Nor was their industry confined to commerce and navigation. 
Mankind was indebted to them for a variety of other useful in- 
ventions or discoveries, for instance, of the purple, glass, weights 
and measures, arithmetic, and perhaps of the art of writing, 
which is, however, ascribed by some to the Egyptians or the Assy- 
rians. Cadmus, who, about the year B. c. 1519, carried the 
alphabet into Greece, was a Phenician. 

The book of Genesis mentions, not only other cities, but even 
principalities and kingdoms founded in that remote period. 
There were among others, the kings of Sodom and Gomorrha, 
of Gerara and Salem, of Sennaar or Chaldea, and of the Elamites 
or Persians. Most of these sovereigns were far from being pow- 
erful monarchs, and frequently their jurisdiction did not extend 
beyond the limits of one district or city ; a proof, however, that 
a settled form of government was already known and adopted in 
many countries. 

Until men had considerably multiplied, they continued under 
the authority of their fathers or chiefs of families, called patri- 
archs, as Noe, Sem, Abraham, &c. But subsequently, diversity 
of interests and the necessity of providing for the common security 
and welfare, induced them to seek the powerful protection of one 
person or more, possessed of the necessary qualifications and in- 
vested with full authority for the discharge of so important a 
trust. The remembrance and favorable idea which they had 
of the patriarchal power, led them to imitate it in their political 
organization, and in most cases to choose the monarchical form 
of government. Hence we find in both sacred and profane writers, 
that most of the nations of antiquity were monarchical, though 
not despotic states. The despotic authority seems to have taken 
its rise only with great and powerful empires, such as could not 
exist from the beginning. 

It is very probable that, towards the commencement of civil 
societies, ambition and intrigue had little to do in the promotion 
and accession of sovereigns. As far as may be gathered from the 
earliest documents, they were persons who enjoyed a reputation 
of beneficence and integrity, or who had previously rendered 
great services to their fellow men by their prudence and courage. 
Monarchs of this character were more inclined to preserve their 
dominions in peace, than extend them by conquests.* Unfortu- 

* "Principio rerum, gentium nationumque imperium penes reges 
cvat: quos ad fastigiuni liujus majostatis non anibitio popularis, seel 



RISE OF THE EARLIEST STATES. 21 

nately, these pacific reigns were not of long duration. Disputes 
and quarrels almost unavoidable between neighbors, jealousy 
against a superior power, desire to enlarge one's dominions or to 
acquire glory, restless and warlike inclinations, etc., gave rise to 
different wars which could not be otherwise terminated than by 
the entire defeat of the weaker party. The first advantages 
gained over an enemy, while they flattered the ambition of the 
conqueror, increased his resources, gave a new stimulus to his 
courage, and inspired him with a desire to subdue other coun- 
tries. It was thus that small states gradually became powerful 
kingdoms. 

This was the case chiefly with the Assyrian and Babylonian 
empires. Although Ninive and Babylon, their capitals, were at 
no great distance from each other, they for a long time preserved 
their respective independence. Each formed a state of moderate 
extent. At length, the Assyrian monarchs availed themselves 
of certain favorable circumstances to attack the Babylonians, 
defeated them, and taking their sovereign prisoner, added the 
kingdom of Babylon to that of Ninive. From that period, the 
Assyrian empire acted a considerable part in the world, and en- 
joyed a formidable power throughout all Upper Asia. Hence 
several historians and critics* place its origin about the time of 
the Trojan war, and think that, until the death of Sardanapalus, 
it lasted no more than five hundred and twenty years ; whereas 
others f allow it a duration of thirteen or fourteen centuries, 
which is also very true, if we take into consideration its very 
beginning and the whole period of its slow progress. Thus the 
two opinions may be easily reconciled; the more so, as they both 
seem equally to agree with the Scripture, which, although it 
gives to the cities of Ninive and Babylon the remotest antiquity, 
does not speak of the Assyrian empire as extensive and powerful 
till a much later period. 

In consequence of the still greater darkness in which the early 
history of Arabia, India, China, and, with still greater reason, 
America, is involved, we purposely omit the history of these 
countries till the times of modern history, when they came in 
contact with European nations. 

spectata inter bonos moderatio provehebat Fines imperii tueri 

magis, quam proferre, mos erat ; intra suam cuique patriam regna 
finiebantur." — Justin, Hist. lib. i, cap. 1. See likewise the judicious 
remarks of English Univ. Hist., vol. i, pp. 314, 315. — Rollin's Ancient 
Hist., vol. i, avant propos ; — and Goguet, Origine des Lois, etc. vol. i, b. i. 
Preliminary Observations. 

* E. g. Herodotus, Usher, Bossuct, D. Calmet, etc. 

f Ctesias, Justin, Diodorus Sic, Petavias, Rollin, Gerard, etc. 



22 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part I. 



EGYPTIANS. 

Egypt, on the contrary, claims for the present our undivided 
attention. Among all the nations of remote and profane anti- 
quity, the Egyptians were the most remarkable for the stability 
of their government, the wisdom of their laws, and the high de- 
gree of civilization and proficiency in the arts and sciences which 
they attained. Whatever is to be said here of this celebrated 
people and country, shall be placed under four separate heads. 
The first head or section will treat of the fertility and monuments 
of Egypt ; the second, of her civil and political history ; the 
third, of the government, laws and manners of her inhabitants; 
the fourth, of their religion, and of the origin and progress of 
idolatry. 

§ I. FERTILITY AND MONUMENTS OF EGYPT. 

For the fertility of its soil and the number of its monuments, 
Egypt was almost without a rival. This fertility depended, as it 
still depends, on the annual overflowings of the river Nile, which 
traverses and waters the valley of Egypt in all its extent, from 
the confines of Nubia in the south to the shores of the Mediter- 
ranean sea in the north. These inundations are produced by the 
heavy rains that fall in Upper Ethiopia during the summer sea- 
son. The rivers of that country, pouring their swollen waters 
into the Nile, cause it to overflow its banks, and, by covering 
the lands on each side for several months, to fertilize them by 
the alluvion which it deposits on their surface. When the 
waters subside, a few months are sufficient to till the ground, 
sow the grain, and reap an abundant harvest. Nay, the same 
soil will, in one year, yield three or four different kinds of fruit, 
corn or vegetables. 

To produce this wonderful effect on the land, the overflowing 
of the Nile must reach a certain height. If it remains below 
eighteen or nineteen feet, or if it exceeds thirty-one or thirty- 
two, there is an equal danger of sterility and famine. The 
favorable height is twenty-five or twenty-six feet. 

In order to counteract these irregularities in the annual over- 
flow of the Nile, Moeris, one of the first kings of Egypt, dug at 
some distance from the river a deep and vast basin, connected 
with it by a canal. This basin, or rather lake, received the 
superabundant waters when the inundation was excessive, and 
gave of its own abundance when the Nile had not swollen to the 
desired height. 



EGYPTIANS. 23 

Egypt was, moreover, intersected by a great number of other 
canals, of a length and breadth proportioned to the situation and 
wants of the lands. Through them the river bore fertility in 
every direction ; opened an easy communication between cities, 
and even between the Mediterranean and the Red seas ; facili- 
tated inland commerce as well as foreign trade; and finally 
served as a barrier against the attacks of an enemy : thus afford- 
ing, at the same time, nourishment and protection to Egypt. 
The lands were left to be occupied by it for a season; but the 
towns, situated on more elevated ground, stood like islands in 
the midst of the waters, and seemed to look down with joy on 
the plains overflowed and enriched by the Nile. 

Even at the present time, according to many grave authors,* 
no scenery surpasses in beauty that of Egypt at two seasons of 
the year. In the month of July or August, a spectator from 
the summit of a mountain or the top of one of the pyramids, 
beholds a vast inland sea, in which several towns and villages 
appear, with several causeways leading from place to place, the 
whole intersected with groves and fruit-trees forming a delightful 
prospect ; in the distance he beholds woods and mountains, ter- 
minating the most beautiful horizon that can be imagined. The 
scene is changed in the months of January and February. The 
whole country then appears to be one continued and splendid 
meadow, whose verdure enamelled with flowers charms the 
eye. The spectator beholds, on every side, flocks and herds 
scattered through the plain, with numbers of husbandmen and 
gardeners busy at their respective occupations. The air also is 
then perfumed by the great quantity of blossoms on the orange, 
lemon, and other trees ; and is so pure that a more wholesome 
or agreeable climate could hardly be found in the world : so that 
nature, which, at that season of the year, is in other regions 
apparently lifeless, seems to live only in this delightful abode. 

If all this be true of Egypt at the present day, how magnifi- 
cent a spectacle it must have formerly presented, when it con- 
tained, according to some historians, twenty thousand villages 
and cities, and was Covered with monuments of every description ! 

The principal monuments were : 1. The obelisks, or quadran- 
gular pyramids hewed out of a single block of granite, raised 
perpendicularly, and covered with inscriptions and hieroglyphic 
or mysterious symbols. Some of those obelisks were one hun- 
dred and fifty, or even two hundred feet high, and are still one 
of the chief ornaments of Rome, whither they were transported 
by sea under the emperors. 
* Engl Univ. Ilist. vol. ii, p. 20 ; Rollin's Ancient History, vol. i, p. 45. 



24 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part I. 

2. The pyramids are still more lofty and astonishing struc- 
tures. Three of them deserved to be reckoned among the seven 
wonders of the world,* and their enormous bulk and strength 
enabled them to triumph over time and the inroads of barbarians. 
The largest of the three forms a perfect square, each side of 
which measures about seven hundred feet at the base. Its 
perpendicular height is five hundred feet; and its summit, which 
from below seems to be nothing more than a sharp point, is 
however a square platform measuring nearly twenty feet on each 
side. This amazing structure is composed of stones of extraor- 
dinary size, many of them being not less than thirty feet long, 
three feet wide and four fejet high. According to Herodotus, the 
building of this pyramid occupied a hundred thousand workmen 
at the same time, and even more, according to Diodorus and 
Pliny. They were succeeded, at the end of three months, by an 
equal number, and so on in succession. It took thirty years to 
complete the stupendous work, and the cost of the single item 
of vegetables furnished to the workmen amounted to sixteen 
hundred talents, or nearly one million seven hundred thousand 
dollars; from which we may conjecture how great must have 
been the total expense of the structure. 

3. Next to the pyramids, the labyrinth of Egypt deserves to 
be mentioned as one of the most considerable and extraordinary 
works ever contrived and executed by men. If we give credit 
to Herodotus, who had seen it, it surpassed the pyramids them- 
selves. 

This edifice comprised within the same enclosure three thou- 
sand rooms, twelve of which were so beautiful and magnificent 
as to be justly called palaces. Of the three thousand apart- 
ments, fifteen hundred were above, and fifteen hundred under 
ground. They all indeed communicated with one another, but 
by such a complication of circuitous passages, that in order to 
avoid being lost in them, it was absolutely necessary to have a 
skilful guide. All the parts of the edifice, the ceilings and the 
walls, were of white marble embellished with a variety of carv- 
ings, and the twelve palaces just spoken of were supported by 
pillars of the same material. Nothing now remains of this mag- 
nificent building. 

4. Among the splendid monuments of ancient Egypt, may be 
also reckoned the Mausoleum of Osymandias, one of its kings. It 

* The other reputed wonders of the ancient world, were : the Pharos 
of Alexandria, in Lower Egypt ; the Colossus of Rhodes ; the Tomb of 
Mausolus, king of Caria ; the Temple of Diana in Ephesus ; the Statue 
of Jupiter Olympian, and the Labyrinth of Crete. 



EGYPTIANS. 25 

was encompassed with a circle of gold, having in breadth ono 
cubit (or a foot and about eight or ten inches), and in circum- 
ference, three hundred and sixty-five cubits, on every one of 
which were marked the rising and setting of the sun, of the 
moon, and of the constellations. So far back as this remote 
antiquity, the Egyptians divided the year into twelve months, 
consisting each of thirty days; and at the end of the twelfth 
month, they added five days to complete the total number of 
three hundred and sixty-five, very nearly the whole of the solar 
year : a circumstance which alone is enough to show the great 
progress that they had already made in astronomy. At the 
sight of this costly and superb monument, the beholder knew 
not which most to admire, the costly nature of the materials, or 
the skill and genius of the artists. It was carried away by 
Cambyses, king of Persia, when he conquered Egypt. 

5. The city of Thebes, in Upper Egypt, was by itself, its 
extent and its magnificence, a world of wonders. We may, it is 
true, suspect exaggeration in the statement of some ancient 
writers, that it had a hundred gates and could send forth through 
each of them, and at the same time, two hundred chariots with 
ten thousand combatants ; a number which would suppose four 
or five millions of inhabitants. But no one can question the 
detailed and impartial account of several modern travellers, who 
have visited the spot once occupied by Thebes. The ruins with 
which it is covered are so stately, and. exhibit to the astonished 
beholder so prodigious a variety of gigantic statues, columns, 
obelisks and porticoes, that they alone may suffice to give the 
highest idea of the splendor, glory and riches of the ancient 
Egyptian monarchy. 

The various monuments which have been just mentioned, 
were erected at different times and by different princes. We 
will now give a brief history of the principal among those 
ancient Egyptian kings, as far as the obscurity of so remote a 
period will permit. 

§ II. KINGS OF EGYPT. 

Menes or Mesraim, towards the year B. c. 2200. — When the 
dispersion of men took place, Cham, one of the three sons of 
Noe, settled with his family in Egypt and the neighboring coun- 
tries, where, after his death, he received divine honors, under 
the name of Jupiter Amnion. Mesraim or Menes, his son, 
founded the kingdom of Egypt, and was the first sovereign 
of that country. Hence Egypt, in the Hebrew text of Scrip- 

3 



26 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part I. 

ture, is commonly called Mesraim, and sometimes the land of 
Cham. 

Busiris. Mesraim, after a short interval, was succeeded by 
Busiris, who built the famous city of Thebes, and surrounded it 
with strong walls, to protect it against the attacks of the Ethio- 
pians. 

Mceris, who seems to have reigned a little before Abraham's 
time, that is, about the year B. c. 2000, immortalized himself by 
the construction of the celebrated lake which bears his name. 

Osymandias, (believed by some to have reigned at a later 
period, and to have been one of the successors of Sesostris). It 
is related of him that, with an army of four hundred thousand 
foot and twenty thousand horse, he waged a successful war 
against the Bactrians, a people of Asia. Not less conspicuous 
for his civil than for his military abilities, he embellished Thebes 
with a variety of splendid monuments, among others, with a 
magnificent library, the first recorded in history, and his own 
mausoleum, which has been already described. 

UcJioris, whose date is likewise uncertain, built or at least 
considerably enlarged the city of Memphis, in that part of Middle 
Egypt where the Nile divides itself into several branches. Besides 
extending it to nearly twenty miles in circumference, he raised, 
on the southern side, a very high mole, and built on the right 
and left strong causeways, to secure the town both against the 
overflowings of the river and the attacks of invaders. A city so 
well fortified and so advantageously situated soon became the 
usual residence of the Egyptian kings. It continued in the pos- 
session of this honor, until Alexandria was founded by Alexander 
the Great. 

Egypt had been so far governed by its native princes, when 
it passed for a time under the sway of foreign kings, usually 
called (in profane history) Shepherd-kings. The history of this 
foreign dynasty of sovereigns is involved in the greatest obscu- 
rity, both as to their origin and to the duration of their power 
until their final expulsion. This, however, appears certain, that 
they never occupied Upper Egypt, and that the inhabitants of 
Thebais not only preserved their independence, but even suc- 
ceeded at length in expelling those foreigners from all Egypt. 

A much more authentic account of this part of Egyptian history 
is found in the corresponding part of Scripture. During the 
interval which elapsed between the years B. c. 1900 and 1500, 
there reigned in Egypt a long series of monarchs designated by 
the common name of Pharaos. It was under this dynasty that 
the Israelites, or chosen people of God, obtained an advantageous 



EGYPTIANS. 27 

settlement in the best part of that kingdom. Being at first 
highly favored, they afterwards experienced a cruel persecution, 
until the Almighty was pleased to deliver them from their 
bondage by unheard-of prodigies, through the ministry of 
Moses. 

Shortly after, and probably during the forty years' sojourn 
of the Israelites in the desert, the Egyptian sceptre was wielded 
by Sesostris, whom historians represent not only as one of the 
most powerful kings that ever reigned over Egypt, but even as 
one of the greatest conquerors of antiquity. His father, called 
Amenophis, seemed to have a presentiment of the future great- 
ness of his son, and omitted nothing that might be conducive 
to it. 

He ordered all the male children who were born on the same 
day with Sesostris, to be brought to the court. Here they wero 
raised as if they had been his own children, receiving the same 
attention as the young prince himself, with whom they always 
remained. The chief part of their education consisted in training 
them, from their infancy, to a hard and laborious life, in order 
that they might one day be able easily to bear the fatigues of war. 
They were never permitted to take their meals, till they had 
gone a considerable distance on foot or on horseback. Hunting 
was their usual exercise; and when they had grown sufficiently 
strong for more violent exertions, they were made to attend 
several military expeditions against the neighboring tribes. Just 
at this juncture, Amenophis died, leaving his son well pre- 
pared to attempt with success the greatest and most arduous 
enterprises. 

Sesostris, having ascended the throne, thought of nothing less 
than the conquest of the whole world. However, before leaving 
his kingdom, he endeavored with great care to provide for its 
interior tranquillity, and particularly to win the affection of his 
subjects by his equity, affability and beneficence. He divided 
the whole country into thirty-six provinces, and intrusted the 
government of them to persons of undoubted uprightness and 
fidelity. 

In the meanwhile, he was making adequate preparations for 
the execution of his vast designs. He assembled troops, and 
appointed over them able and brave officers, such as the young 
men whom his father had caused to be educated with him, and 
whose number amounted, it is said, to seventeen hundred. His 
whole army consisted of six hundred thousand infantry and 
twenty-four thousand cavalry, besides twenty-seven thousand 
chariots armed for war. 



28 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part I. 

He began by subduing Ethiopia, a country situated at the 
south of Egypt. He rendered it tributary, and compelled the 
inhabitants to pay him every year a certain quantity of ivory 
and gold. 

With a fleet of- three or four hundred vessels, he conquered 
various islands and maritime cities or provinces contiguous to 
the Arabian gulph, and along the shores of the Indian Ocean. 
His conquests by land were still more considerable. Placing 
himself at the head of his troops, he overran Asia with astonish- 
ing rapidity, and advanced farther into Eastern India than even 
Hercules or Alexander the Great at a subsequent period. To- 
wards the north, the Scythians were likewise subdued by him, 
as well as Armenia and Cappadocia. Near the Euxine sea, in 
the ancient kingdom of Colchos, he left a colony which preserved 
the Egyptian manners long after its foundation ; various monu- 
ments of his victories also remained in Asia Minor, where, after 
the lapse of many centuries, they were seen by Herodotus. In 
several countries there were found columns with the following 
bombastic inscription: "Sesostris, king of kings and lord of 
lords, subdued this country by the power of his arms." Pillars 
of this kind had been erected even in Thrace; Sesostris had 
penetrated as far as the Tanais; and his empire extended from 
the Ganges to the Danube. 

Want of provisions prevented him from advancing farther into 
Europe. This prince did not seek, like other conquerors, to 
maintain his power in the countries he had subdued, but con- 
tenting himself with having once taken possession of them, and 
having overrun the world during the space of nine years, he in 
the end appeared satisfied with the ancient limits of Egypt; nor 
do we find in history any clear vestige of this new empire, whether 
under himself or his successors. 

Sesostris returned to his kingdom, loaded with spoils and 
crowned with glory; if indeed glory consists in ravaging the 
earth, depopulating provinces, and reducing an infinite number 
of persons to misery and distress. He spent the remainder of 
his life in the peaceful government of his people. There were 
still extant, under the first Roman emperors, monuments that 
testified the high degree of splendor and opulence to which he 
had raised his kingdom. Having become blind in his old age, 
this great conqueror of numberless nations had not the courage 
to conquer himself, and to bear that infirmity with patience; he is 
believed to have put an end to his own life, after a brilliant reign 
of thirty-three years. 

Little will be said about the successors of Sesostris, most of 



EGYPTIANS. 29 

whom did nothing very remarkable. Moreover, the history of 
Egypt will henceforth be found usually blended with that of the 
Israelites, the Assyrians and the Persians, till the destruction 
of her national independence. 

§ III. GOVERNMENT, LAWS AND MANNERS OP THE ANCIENT 
EGYPTIANS. 

Egypt was, from the beginning, governed by kings. The 
crown was hereditary, but the sovereign was under the control 
of the law, as well as the least of his subjects; there existed a 
variety of regulations for the employment of his time, the order 
of his actions, and even the quantity and quality of the aliments 
to be served up at his table. Every day, during the public wor- 
ship at which he had to attend, he was put in mind of his duties. 
The high-priest exhorted him to the practice of all royal virtues, 
pronounced maledictions against wicked counsellors, and closed 
the ceremony by the recital of the best moral maxims, and of 
such parts of history as could be of the greatest service to the 
monarch for the right government of his people. 

The chief obligation and usual function of the sovereign, was 
to administer justice to his subjects. The trial and decision of 
cases which could not easily be brought before his tribunal, were 
committed to a court of thirty judges taken from the three prin- 
cipal cities of the kingdom, viz. : Memphis, Heliopolis and 
Thebes. The most upright citizens were selected to discharge 
this important function, and placed under the presidency of that 
one of their own number who enjoyed the highest reputation 
for learning and integrity. They received suitable salaries from 
the king, in order that, being freed from domestic cares, they 
might spend their whole time in promoting the execution of the 
laws, and render to every one more impartial justice. 

This select assembly, to avoid prejudice, treated and examined 
affairs in writing. They feared nothing so much as a false elo- 
quence, which moves to excess the feelings of the heart by 
glowing expressions, and dazzles the mind by artful sophisms; 
the truth could not be presented to them with too much plain- 
ness, since it was to be the only rule of their judgments. As 
an emblem of that truth, the president of the court wore a collar 
of gold set with precious stones, at which hung a figure without 
eyes. He touched with it the person whose claims had been 
judged valid, and this was the usual manner of passing sentence. 

The civil laws of the Egyptians, enacted at different times of 
their monarchy, commonly evinced a great spirit of wisdom. 

3* 



SO ANCIENT HISTORY. Part I. 

The population was divided into three classes, priests, warriors 
and people. The two first were the most respected;. still, the 
last, consisting of husbandmen and mechanics, enjoyed due 
regard and consideration, and agriculture especially was held in 
high esteem, as an inexhaustible source of public prosperity. 
Professions, as well as the royal dignity and power, were heredi- 
tary, and invariably passed from fathers to sons. No citizens 
were allowed to lead a useless life, but every individual was 
obliged to declare before the magistrates his name, his residence, 
and his profession. 

The criminal code of the Egyptian nation was plain and pre- 
cise. Voluntary murder, though committed only on a slave, 
was punished with death, as also perjury and a culpable refusal 
to defend a person attacked by assassins. False and slanderous 
accusers underwent the same chastisement which would have 
been inflicted on the accused person, if found guilty. 

Those who made false coins, or used false measures, had both 
hands cut off. Soldiers who deserted their standard or otherwise 
failed in their duty, were punished with degradation; but they 
could redeem their honor by greater courage and better conduct. 
Great infamy was likewise attached to insolvency. No one was 
allowed to solicit and obtain a loan, unless" by delivering his 
father's embalmed body as a pawn to the creditor; not to redeem 
it was considered infamous and a sort of impiety, which deprived 
the person that died without fulfilling this obligation, of the 
usual honors of burial. 

Every Egyptian, from the monarch to the private individual, 
underwent after his death a solemn and most extraordinary judg- 
ment. A public accuser was heard. If proof was adduced that 
the conduct of the deceased had been wicked, his memory was 
condemned, and they interred him without honor. But, if the 
judgment proved favorable to him, his encomium was publicly 
delivered, and the body carefully embalmed and returned to his 
family and relations, who placed it in an erect posture, in a niche 
prepared for the purpose. The bodies thus embalmed are called 
in history Egyptian mummies; many of them still exist, being 
perhaps some thousand years old. 

From what has been said, we may gather the chief moral quali- 
ties of the ancient Egyptians. They manifested great zeal for 
the public good, a relish for a serious manner of life, gravity 
of deportment, respect towards persons of an advanced age, and 
gratitude for benefits received. The chief trait, perhaps, in their 
national character was that they imbibed, from their youth, a 
deep spirit of reverence and submission for the civil and moral 



EGYPTIANS. 31 

laws of their country ; hence very few nations can be found who 
preserved their social manners and customs as long as the 
Egyptians did, throughout the various dyDasties of their native 
sovereigns. 

As to their proficiency in the arts and sciences, it everywhere 
shone forth in the variety and magnificence of their public monu- 
ments. We will merely add that Egypt was considered by other 
nations as the best school of learning and wisdom; Greece, in 
particular, was so fully persuaded of this, that her greatest 
geniuses, such as Homer, Pythagoras, Herodotus, Plato, Solon, 
Lycurgus, and others, went purposely to Egypt, and dwelt there 
for a time, in order to improve themselves in the different 
branches of knowledge. The Scripture itself gives a remarkable 
testimony in behalf of this celebrated nation, by saying that 
"Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians; and 
he was powerful in his words and in his deeds."* 

§ IV. RELIGION OF THE EGYPTIANS — ORIGIN, PROGRESS, AND 
EXTENT OF IDOLATRY. 

But Egypt did not possess, on the subject of religion, the 
wisdom which she displayed in political matters, civil laws, and 
the arts and sciences; on the contrary, no nation was ever so 
blind and superstitious as the Egyptian people. They not only 
admitted the absurdities of Polytheism, adoring the sun and 
moon under the names of Osiris and Isis, but they also reckoned 
among their gods a great variety of animals; for instance, the 
ox, as being the emblem of husbandry; the dog, as the guardian 
of houses and flocks; the cat, as the destroyer of rats, with which 
the country was filled; the ibis, a kind of stork, and the enemy 
of serpents; the ichneumon, a sort of lizard, which waged a ter- 
rible war against the monstrous crocodile, etc. Even noxious 
animals, owing to the terror which they inspired, received divine 
honors from this deluded people. The very plants and vege- 
tables, onions and leeks for instance, partook of these honors; 
which made the satiric poet ironically exclaim : 

sanctas gentes, quibus hsec nascuntur in hortis numinalf 

Of all the animals in which a deity was thought to reside, the 
most renowned was the ox called Apis or Onuphis. To this 
pretended god magnificent temples were erected. Extraordinary 

* Acts vii, 22. 

f sanctimonious nations, whose gods grow in their gardens !— 
Juvenal, Sat. xv, 1. 10. 



32 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part I. 

honors were bestowed on him during his life, and still greater 
ones after his death, which was for the Egyptians a subject of 
general mourning; and his obsequies were solemnized with a 
degree of pomp almost incredible. The next care was to provide 
a successor to the deceased deity. He was to be recognised by 
certain signs, which distinguished him from every other animal 
of his kind, viz. : a white spot on his forehead, the figure of an 
eagle on his back, and upon his tongue that of a beetle. As 
soon as he was found, mourning gave place to exultation, and 
nothing was heard in all parts of Egypt but festivity and rejoic- 
ing. The new god was led to Memphis, and there, with a great 
number of ceremonies, put in possession of his dignity.* 

Although the Egyptians agreed as to the substance of this 
gross idolatry, which made them bow down in adoration before 
beasts, they did not all agree as to the particular objects of their 
worship. Whilst some revered one kind of animals as gods, 
their neighbors held the same animals in abomination ; a cir- 
cumstance which gave rise to many civil wars between the dif- 
ferent cities. Their zeal for the honor of their respective gods 
was truly astonishing; it was deemed a crime punishable with 
death, to have killed, even involuntarily, a cat or an ibis. 
Diodorus, the historian, relates an incident to which he himself 
was an eye-witness, during his stay in Egypt. A Roman once 
inadvertently killed a cat; the exasperated populace ran to his 
house, and neither the authority of the king, who had sent a 
body of the royal guard, nor the high respect generally enter- 
tained for the Roman name, could rescue the unfortunate indi- 
vidual from their fury. Such was the reverence which the 
Egyptians bore to those animals, that, in a time of extreme 
famine, they chose to eat one another, rather than feed upon the 
flesh of their imaginary deities. 

Thus this polished and enlightened nation became the votaries 
of the most ridiculous superstition. Nor was the evil confined 
to Egypt. In proportion as the various branches of the human 
family were more remote from their origin, the more they forgot 
their Creator, and, with the single exception of the Hebrew 
people, adopted the deplorable errors and practices of idolatry. 
The Babylonians had their false god Belus; the Phenicians and 

* For any one acquainted with the history of the Bible, it is easy to 
recognise the imitation of the Egyptian god Apis, in the golden calf 
cast and worshipped by the Israelites in the desert, Exod. xxxii, 4, 6 ; 
and in the two golden calves afterwards set up for adoration by the 
impious king Jeroboam, at the two extremities of the kingdom of 
Israel, 3 Kings xii, 28—30. 



ISRAELITES. S3 

Chanaanites, their Astarthe and their Molocli or Saturn; in later 
times, the Greeks and Romans had their Jupiter, and a vast 
number of other pretended deities. Not only the temples, but 
also the houses, the cities, the country, the air, the forests, etc. 
were supposed to be filled with them. " Every thing was (held 
as) god, except God himself; and the universe, which the 
Almighty had created for the manifestation of his power, seemed 
to have been changed into a temple of idols. "* 

Men were not even satisfied with- worshipping the creature 
instead of the Creator, the sun, the moon, and the stars, as well 
as heroes and benefactors; they went so far as to deify, under 
the disguise of various names, their very vices and passions. 
They so utterly lost sight of the true God that they thought 
they could make gods for themselves, cause a deity, the offspring 
of their imagination, to reside in vain idols, and pay divine 
honors to the works of their hands. f These honors frequently 
consisted in human sacrifices, degrading actions, impure rites, 
and other excesses, which everywhere showed how very low 
man had fallen beneath the dignity of his first origin. 

This great evil daily made an alarming progress. Lest it 
should at last infect all mankind, the Almighty determined, in 
the decrees of his eternal wisdom, to set apart a whole people, 
among whom the true worship and doctrines of religion might 
be preserved, until the coming of the great Redeemer of the 
world and the beginning of his church. 

A BARRIER OPPOSED TO IDOLATRY. 

HEBREWS OR ISRAELITES. 

Abraham, a descendant of Sem, was the father of this chosen 
people. J The Lord called him from the place of his birth, 
Chaldea, to the land of Chanaan or Palestine, where he intended 
to establish at first the true religion together with the posterity of 
this holy patriarch. Abraham readily obeyed the divine call. 
Although possessed of immense riches, he always preserved the 

* Bossuet, Discourse on Univ. Hist, part ii, ch. 3. 

f See Psalm cxlii ; Isa. xlii and xliv ; Dan. v, 4, and xiv, 5, 23 ; 
3 Reg. xii, 28, 29, etc. 

J A particular and detailed account of -what concerns the Israelites, 
properly belongs to Sacred History, and therefore does not come within 
the scope of the present work. Yet, since they also were a nation, and 
their history is often very closely interwoven with that of their neigh- 
bors, Egyptians, Assyrians, etc., mention will be made of them, when 
required by the nature, importance or connection of events. 



84 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part I. 

simplicity of ancient manners, and led, with his family, a pas- 
toral life united with a certain magnificence, which he displayed 
chiefly in exercising hospitality towards strangers. He had the 
honor to receive and treat as guests, heavenly messengers under 
a human shape. The angels acquainted him with the designs 
of God upon his descendants and upon himself; he believed them 
with unshaken faith, and showed in all things his piety and sub- 
mission to the divine will. 

Abraham was succeeded by Isaac, his son, and Jacob, his 
grandson, the faithful imitators of his virtues and pastoral life. 
The Almighty reiterated in their behalf the promises which he 
had made to their pious parent, and was their constant protector. 
Jacob, moreover, received from an angel the name of Israel, 
whence his descendants, previously called Hebrews, were like- 
wise called Israelites. He had twejve sons, who became the 
fathers of the twelve tribes of Israel, and the most remarkable 
of whom were Juda, the ancestor, according to the flesh, of the 
promised Messiah; Levi, from whose tribe the priests and other 
ministers of sacred things were to be chosen ; and Joseph, so 
well known for his innocence and purity of life, his misfor- 
tunes caused by the jealousy of his brothers, the special protec- 
tion of God over him, and his subsequent elevation to the 
summit of power among the Egyptians, whose favors he also 
conciliated for his family. 

It was by this series of wonderful events, that Divine Provi- 
dence brought about the settlement of the Israelites in Lower 
Egypt. Shortly after the death of Joseph, they because exceed- 
ingly numerous. This provoked the jealousy and fears of the 
Egyptians, particularly of their monarchs, and the Hebrews were 
subjected to a persecution equally inhuman and unjust, till 
Heaven, moved by their miseries, gave them a deliverer in the 
person of Moses. This great man awed nature itself by the 
splendid prodigies of which he was the instrument in behalf of 
a cruelly oppressed people. The Hebrews were at length, in 
compliance with his earnest request, permitted to depart; and 
their miraculous escape through the Red Sea, which opened to 
leave them a free passage, whilst it swallowed up in its waves 
the Egyptians who pursued them, completed their happy dili- 
verance, B. c. 1491. 

Fifty days after the departure of the Israelites from Egypt, 
Almighty God gave them his written law through the ministry 
of the same Moses; for which reason, it is also called the Mosaic 
law. This great event was followed by their residence during 
forty years in the deserts of Arabia, and by a series of painful 



GRECIAN STATES. 35 

■wanderings to which they were condemned in punishment of 
their repeated revolts, obstinacy and ingratitude. At the expira- 
tion of this term, they arrived in sight of the land of promise. 
They were at last put in possession of it by Josue, the worthy 
successor of Moses both as to the government of the people, and 
the prodigious power over nature with which God had likewise 
invested him for the execution of his designs. 

After the death of Josue, and during the space of more than 
three hundred years, the Israelites were commonly governed by 
judges, or chiefs established to rule them in the name and by 
the authority of God, whether, as was commonly the case, they 
were expressly appointed by the Lord himself, or, as it some- 
times happened, were chosen by the people. The most illus- 
trious of these judges were Gedeon, Jephte, Samson and Samuel, 
by whom the Hebrews were successively delivered from the 
oppression of their enemies, the Madianites, the Ammonites and 
the Philistines. 

It was during the government of Jephte, that the Greeks and 
Trojans carried on the obstinate struggle, which terminated in 
the entire destruction of Troy. In order to have a correct idea 
of this event, it is necessary to know the state of the Greeks and 
the Trojans before that period. 



RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE GRECIAN STATES. 

KINGDOM OF TROY. 

Javan or Ion, one of the sons of Japhet and grandson of 
Noe, is to be considered as the common father of all those tribes 
that went under the general denomination of Greeks. For, 
although he has been considered by some as the father only of 
the Ionians properly so called, who were but one particular 
nation of Greece; yet the Hebrews, Chaldeans, Arabians, and 
others, give no other appellation to the whole, body of Grecian 
states than that of Ionians.* For this reason Alexander the 
Great, in the prophecy of Daniel, is mentioned under the name 
of King of Javan, that is, of the Greeks. f 

Javan had four sons, Elisa, Tharsis, Cetthim and Dodanim, 
who became the heads of the chief Grecian families. Their 
names were for a long time preserved in various parts of the 

* See Engl. Univ. Hist. vol. ix, pp. 5, 6. — Rollin's Ancient History, 
vol. ii, pp. 437—440 ;— Gerard, Lecons sur VHistoire, vol. i, pp. 203—207. 
f Dan. viii, 21. 



36 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part I. 

country. But when the original tribes were either subdivided, 
or blended with new settlers, or driven away and succeeded by 
an enemy, those of more recent origin adopted various appella- 
tions, according to the names of their most renowned sovereigns 
or founders of their dynasties. Such were the denominations of 
Pelasgi, Hellenes, Danai, Graii or Graeci, Argives, Dorians, 
Ionians proper, JEolians, Achaeans, etc. 

Nothing is more intricate and obscure than the early history 
of those petty original tribes, which afterwards became so con- 
spicuous among all nations of the earth, for the glory of their 
arms, the refinement of their manners, and the high degree of 
perfection which they attained in the arts, sciences and polite 
literature. What we know with greatest certainty concerning 
the primitive inhabitants of Greece is, that they lived a wretched 
and miserable life, warring against each other, wandering in 
forests, and feeding, like brutes, upon roots and acorns. The 
whole country, in that infant state, was one continued scene of 
disturbances and revolutions. As the people had no. settled 
government, and there existed no common authority to enact 
laws and enforce their execution, every thing was determined by 
mere physical force. The strongest invaded the lands of their 
neighbors which they thought more fertile and productive, and 
dispossessed the lawful owners, who were thus obliged to seek 
new settlements in other countries. 

It is, however, probable that the weakest tribes soon perceived 
the necessity of living together, or at least of assisting each other, 
the better to protect themselves against violence and oppression. 
But the mere fact of an alliance based on a defensive treaty was 
not sufficient to civilize a people whose moral condition was in 
the highest degree deplorable. It was reserved to Phenicia and 
Egypt to produce this desirable effect. Both these nations, by 
the colonies which they sent into Greece, contributed most to 
spread the advantages of social life among its early inhabitants. 
The former taught them writing, navigation and commerce; the 
latter instructed them in the arts and sciences, made them adopt 
a regular form of government, subjected them to laws, and 
founded many of the earliest cities and kingdoms of Greece. 

The most conspicuous among these ancient states were those 
of Sicyon, b. c. about 2000; Argos, b. c. 1856; Athens, 1582; 
Thebes, 1519 ; Lacedasmon or Sparta, 1516 ; and Corinth, 
1376. The kingdom of Macedon was of much more recent date, 
although it had already lasted several centuries when Philip and 
Alexander the Great raised it to the highest pitch of power and 
glory. That of Thessaly derived its origin from Deucalion, 



GRECIAN STATES. 37 

during whose reign there happened, about the year B. c. 1500, 
a great inundation, which many profane writers have confounded 
with the universal deluge described by Moses. 

The first Grecian states were independent, and had no com- 
mon tie, no common centre of unity in their government. This 
might have been a great hindrance to their progress in civiliza- 
tion, or a subject of temptation for some powerful neighbor to 
attack and subdue them successively; but the evil was remedied 
by a man of great prudence and genius. Amphictyon, a king 
of Athens, according to some, — but according to many others, a 
king of Thessaly, — conceived the happy idea of forming one 
mighty nation out of so many small states, without altering any 
thing in the political constitution of each. He effected his 
design by establishing a confederacy of twelve tribes, whose 
deputies assembled twice a year at Delphi or at Thermopylae, 
and, after offering public sacrifices, deliberated under the auspices 
of religion about the common interests of Greece. This cele- 
brated institution was called the Amphictyonic council, from the 
name of its founder. The members who composed it had full 
powers to propose and carry out whatever they thought neces- 
sary or advantageous to the public good ; nor was their authority 
restricted to the enacting of laws; they could likewise raise 
troops to enforce their execution, and to chastise rebels and dis- 
turbers of the public tranquillity. . 

Hence, the sessions of the Amphictyonic council should be 
considered as the states-general or congress of the Hellenic tribes, 
having authority to provide for the general welfare. This was a 
master-piece of skill and policy ; it diffused a spirit of patriotism 
among the Greeks, and laid the foundation of their future great- 
ness. Its salutary effects were seconded by a variety of circum- 
stances, chiefly by the invaluable services of several persons 
endowed with a generous and indomitable courage, such as 
Theseus, Perseus, Hercules, Meleager, Jason, and a host of 
others, so much celebrated by the poets. Their chief exploits 
consisted in delivering the country from wild beasts, or from 
pirates and banditti. For these exertions, grateful though 
superstitious Greece not only praised them as her heroes and 
benefactors, but even honored them as demi-gods. 

This display of patriotism and warlike emulation, combined 
with national concord and unanimity of views, seemed to portend 
something great for the future, and to forebode the probable 
downfall of those who should dare to attack or provoke a nation 
of this character. Such was invariably the result, whenever the 

4 



38 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part I. 

honor of all Greece was concerned, and first of all, in the famous 
event which gave rise to the Trojan war. 

Troy was a large, rich and well fortified city, situated on the 
western coast of Asia Minor, opposite to the northern part of 
Greece. Towards the beginning of the twelfth century before 
the Christian era, it was under the sway of Priam, who embel- 
lished it, and made it the capital of an extensive territory 
subdued by his arms. Unfortunately for that prince and his 
kingdom, he had a son, called Paris, whose unruly passions, not 
sufficiently restrained by a too indulgent father, provoked a 
bloody struggle that led to the ruin of the whole nation. This 
young prince, in his travels through Greece, happened to stay 
for some time in the palace of Menelaus, king of Sparta. Here 
he received a very courteous and friendly welcome. In return 
for so much hospitality, he had the baseness, at his departure, to 
carry off the wife of Menelaus, the famous Helen ; nor could the 
deputations and remonstrances of the offended monarch prevail 
upon the court of Priam to make due reparation. 

SIEGE AND DESTRUCTION OF TROY.— b. c. 1184. 

Upon the intelligence of this refusal of justice, all Greece flew 
to arms, in order to avenge the base insult offered to one of its 
sovereigns, and, in his person, to the whole nation. Their com- 
bined fleet amounted to nearly twelve hundred vessels, and the 
army consisted of about a hundred thousand men, under the 
command of their respective princes. The most conspicuous 
among their leaders were Agamemnon, king of Mycena and 
Argos, who was appointed commander-in-chief,- and Menelaus, 
his brother; Mnestheus, king of Athens; Idomeneus, king of 
Crete; the wise Nestor, king of Pylos; the prudent Ulysses, 
king of Ithaca; the brave Diomedes, king of iEtolia; the intrepid 
Philoctetes, a friend of Hercules; the two undaunted warriors 
called Ajax, one the son of Oileus, and the other of Telamon; 
the invincible Achilles with his friend Patroclus ; and a multi- 
tude of others equally eager to distinguish themselves in so noble 
a cause, the cause of injured hospitality and morality.* 

* The most valuable and authentic account of the Trojan war conies 
from Homer, whose inimitable works are not to be looked upon as the 
mere sport of imagination, but as an excellent portion of the history of 
ancient Greece. The established rule of epic poems is to admit a 
variety of poetical fictions and embellishments, and still to be based on 
the truth of the main facts which they describe. Hence, should anti- 
quity supply us with no other evidence than Homer's testimony, even 
then we could have no reasonable doubt as to the reality of the Trojan 



B. c. 1184. SIEGE AND DESTRUCTION OF TROY. 39 

Ten years had been spent in equipping and collecting this 
powerful armament. At length, it sailed from Aulis, a town of 
Boeotia, and after a happy passage across the iEgean sea, landed 
the troops on the coast of Asia, not far from the walls of Troy. 
The Trojans, on their side, had called to their assistance and 
obtained a large number of auxiliary troops from Lydia, Lycia, 
Paphlagonia, and even from Assyria and Thrace. Their chief 
commanders and warriors were Hector, a son of Priam; iEneas, 
the chief hero of Virgil's JEneid; Sarpedon, a Lycian prince; 
and Memnon, the leader of the Assyrians. Their forces, pro- 
tected by the ramparts of the city, were nearly a match for those 
of their opponents. 

Here these two exasperated nations began a long and terrible 
war. Want of experience in the attack of fortified places, the 
difficulty of procuring provisions in a hostile country, the occa- 
sional ravages of . pestilence among the troops and dissensions 
among their leaders, detained the Greeks for more than nine 
years on the Asiatic shore, and prevented them from obtaining 
any decisive advantage. Their manner of attack upon Troy was, 
properly speaking, neither a blockade nor a regular siege. They 
contented themselves with intrenching their camp, and leaving 
between its fortifications and the walls of the city an extensive 
plain, which served as a battle-ground for the two parties, and in 
which they daily performed many daring exploits, not without 
the loss of several among the bravest warriors on each side. In 
the tenth year of the war, the assailants redoubled their energy, 
concentrated their forces, and resolved by a last effort to bring 
the protracted struggle to a successful issue. Troy, now deprived 
of its best defenders, at last yielded to the repeated attacks of 
the Greeks, although it seems impossible, from the contradictory 
accounts of historians, to decide whether the place was carried 
by storm, treason or stratagem. 

The victorious Greeks destroyed every thing with fire and 

war and its result : but there is, moreover, concerning this great event, 
1. The testimony of the best historians, such as Herodotus, Thucydides, 
etc., and, 2. A sure additional voucher in the Arundelian Marbles, one 
of the most authentic documents and sources of ancient history. This 
curious monument consists of a series of marbles containing a chrono- 
logy of the principal events of Greece, during a space of about twelve 
hundred years, from the year b. c. 1582, to the year b. c. 855. This 
chronology, it is said, was drawn up by public authority and for the 
use of the Athenians, shortly after the death of Alexander the Great. 
These marbles were found in -the island of Paros, and sold to the earl 
of Arundel, who had them transported to England towards the begin- 
ning of the seventeenth century. 



40 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part I. 

sword in that unfortunate city. King Priam perished with all 
his family; the other inhabitants, with the exception of a few 
who escaped by timely flight, were slaughtered or led away cap- 
tives, and the town itself was reduced to ashes. This happened, 
according to the ablest chronologists,* in the year b. c. 1184; a 
highly important epoch in the annals of the Greeks, as it in- 
cluded the chief exploit of their heroic times, and proved what 
their valor could effect, when their forces were united. It must, 
however, be admitted that the Trojan war, in its immediate con- 
sequences, proved nearly as disastrous to the victors as to the 
vanquished. 

* Scaliger, Usher, Petavius, Bossuet, the learned authors of English 
Universal History, etc. 



PAET II. 

FROM THE CLOSE OF THE TROJAN WAR (b. C. 1184), TO THE BUILDING 
OF ROME (B. C. 753). 



POLITICAL SITUATION OF GREECE AFTER THE 
TROJAN WAR. 

GRECIAN COLONIES AND DIALECTS. 

The divine vengeance seemed to pursue the Greeks on their 
return from Asia, in punishment of their merciless and inexorable 
fury towards a vanquished enemy. Few only of their leaders 
were allowed to revisit their homes. Patroclus and Achilles had 
been slain a little before the close of the war, under the ramparts 
of Troy. Mnesthcus died before he arrived at Athens. Of the 
two Ajaxes, the one killed himself in a fit of rage; the other, 
having suffered shipwreck, perished in the sea. Ulysses was not 
able to reach his island of Ithaca, till he had undergone count- 
less dangers and hardships in his voyage. Finally, most of the 
others, as Agamemnon, Nestor, Idomeneus and Diomedcs, either 
met with a violent death at home, or were obliged to quit their 
kingdoms and go in search of a new residence in distant coun- 
tries. 

Several other emigrations took place during this turbulent 
period. A spirit of jealousy and animosity now seemed, with 
redoubled strength, to arm the Grecian tribes against one another. 
The Heraclidse, or descendants of Hercules, had already made 
two unsuccessful attempts towards the subjugation of southern 
Greece or Peloponnesus, thus called from Pclops, one of its former 
settlers, and which they claimed as their inheritance j eighty 
years after the Trojan war, they together with the Dorians 
renewed their efforts, and at length succeeded in obtaining entire 
and permanent possession of the country. The vanquished 
tribes, in their turn, attacked and dispossessed others weaker 
than themselves, so that nearly all Greece was a theatre of con- 
tinual vicissitudes and utter confusion. 

So unpleasant and perilous a situation prompted a large num- 

4* 41 



42 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part II. 

lber of families to leave the country altogether. Most of them 
"belonged to the Dorian, iEolian and Ionian nations. They 
passed over to the neighboring islands, and reaching even the 
Asiatic continent, founded there along the coast many cities, 
which soon rose to a high degree of prosperity and splendor, by 
their rapid improvement in the arts and sciences, commerce and 
civilization. Such were, among others, Halycarnassus, Phocea, 
Clazomena, Smyrna, Ephesus and Miletus. All continued for a 
time, after the example of the mother country, to be free and 
independent cities ; still, deputies from each leading colony occa- 
sionally assembled to offer solemn sacrifices, and to deliberate on 
their common interests. But, as there existed among them no 
other tie than this loose confederation, they could not long 
maintain their independence, and were, sooner or later, com- 
pelled to submit, first to the Ly'dian, and afterwards to the 
Persian power. 

The preceding, though brief, description of Grecian states and 
colonies may enable the reader to appreciate the difference of 
dialects in use among them. There was indeed, as to the sub- 
stance, but one language (the Greek tongue) common to them 
all; but that language, undergoing in various places alterations 
more or less considerable, gave rise to four principal forms or 
dialects, the Attic, Ionic, Doric and iEolic. This variety of 
forms in the mother-tongue should not appear surprising in a 
country parcelled out, as Greece was, into many states independent 
of each other, and each possessing its peculiar government, laws 
and customs. 

The Attic dialect belonged to that part of Greece called Attica, 
which had Athens for its capital. This dialect was used in its 
purity by the dramatic poets iEschylus, Sophocles, Euripides 
and Aristophanes; by the historians Thucydides and Xenophon; 
and by Plato, Isocrates, Demosthenes, and other orators of the 
same age. 

The Ionic was nearly the same with the ancient Attic. Having 
passed, together with the Ionian tribe, from the continent of 
Greece to several cities of Asia Minor, it there underwent pecu- 
liar changes, and never possessed the refined delicacy subsequently 
attained by the pure Attic. It was followed by the ancient poets 
Homer and Hesiod, with a mixture of some other forms; also, 
by Anacreon, in his odes ; and in all its purity, by the prose 
writers Herodotus and Hippocrates. 

The Doric was first used among the Lacedsemonians and 
Argives, and generally among the inhabitants of Peloponnesus 
or southern Greece. From thence it passed to the islands of 



ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. 43 

Rhodes, Crete and Sicily; to Epirus, and to that part of southern 
Italy settled by the Greeks. It was used by Pindar, the poet; 
by Theocritus and Archimedes, both natives of Syracuse in 
Sicily; and by the Pythagorean philosophers. 

The iEolic, which bears a striking resemblance to the Doric, 
was at first spoken by the Boeotians and their neighbors. It 
afterwards accompanied the xEolian colonies into the particular 
district of Lesser Asia which they occupied along the coast, and 
into some of the neighboring islands, such as Lesbos. This 
dialect was used by Alca3us and Sappho, who have left, it is true, 
but few writings; but a mixture of it is found in Homer, Pindar, 
Theocritus, and many others. 

From the Doric and iEolic dialects blended together was 
formed, in great part, the Latin language. 



ASSYRIAN EMPIRE UNDER NINUS AND SEMIRAMIS. 

Ninive and Babylon had already existed for centuries, with- 
out carrying their domination to any great extent.* Shortly 
before the Trojan war, this aspect of affairs was quite changed 
under Ninus, an enterprising, ambitious and warlike prince, who 
first of all reigned over the two cities when united by the con- 
quest of Babylon. Besides this important achievement, he sub- 
dued, within the space of seventeen years, many other countries, 
Armenia, Media, Persia, etc., and extended his empire towards 
the east as far as India. 

After this first series of conquests and before undertaking new 
wars, Ninus applied himself to render Ninive, the capital of all 
his dominions, the greatest city in the world. He enlarged it to 
such a degree as to give it a circumference of about four hun- 
dred furlongs, or fifty miles; an extent which will not appear 
incredible, if we recollect that, according to Holy Writ itself, 
"Ninive was a great city of three days' journey," f and that the 
number alone of its little children not knowing yet how to dis- 
tinguish between their right hand and their left, amounted to 
more than a hundred and twenty thousand."]; This prodigious 

* The early history of Assyria is concealed in almost impenetrable 
darkness. There are scarcely to be found two or three authors who 
entirely agree, either as to the facts, or as to the circumstances and 
particulars, or at least as to the chronology of this empire. We give, 
therefore, the present narrative as being more commonly adopted by 
historians, but without in the least presuming to vouch for its perfect 
accuracy. 

f Jonas iii, 3. | lb. iv, 2. 



44 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part II. 

extent of the place corresponded with the strength of its fortifica- 
tions. The walls were a hundred feet in height, and so wide that 
three chariots might drive on them abreast; and they were, more- 
over, flanked with fifteen hundred towers, two hundred feet high. 

Having completed these great works, Ninus undertook a new 
expedition against the Bactrians, a powerful nation of central 
Asia. He led against them a formidable host, with which he 
subdued many towns and fortresses, and finally laid siege to 
Bactria, the capital of the country. Here all his efforts might 
have failed, had it not been for the assistance which he received 
from Semiramis, the wife of one of his officers, a woman of ex- 
alted genius and masculine courage. Owing to a bold and well- 
directed attack which she led on in person, he was enabled to 
make himself master of the citadel, and afterwards of the whole 
city, in which he found immense riches. 

Ninus then returned to Ninive. He married Semiramis after 
the death of her former husband, and dying shortly after, left to 
her the government of his vast empire. After his example, she 
determined to immortalize her name by magnificent structures 
and extensive conquests. Under her rule Babylon became the 
successful rival of Ninive, and being more and more embellished 
by some of her successors, was, in all probability, the most beauti- 
ful and splendid city that ever existed. - 



DESCRIPTION OF BABYLON. 

The principal monuments which rendered Babylon so con- 
spicuous, were its walls and gates, its bridge and quays, its 
palaces and gardens, and the temple of Belus. Although they 
were built and completed at different epochs, we shall speak of 
them all in this place, in order to convey at once a just and well- 
connected idea of this famous city. 

1. Walls and Gates. — Babylon was a perfect square, measur- 
ing one hundred and twenty furlongs or fifteen miles on each 
side, and consequently four hundred and eighty furlongs or sixty 
miles in circumference. The walls, made of brick cemented with 
bitumen, were at least two hundred (according to Herodotus, 
more than three hundred) feet high, and protected by towers of 
still greater height. They were moreover surrounded by a deep 
ditch, and had a hundred gates, twenty-five on each side of the 
square, and all made of solid brass. From the twenty-five gates 
on each side went as many streets, which, by extending fifteen 
miles in a straight line, reached the twenty-five gates on the op- 
posite side. These, besides the four half streets that fronted the 



DESCRIPTION OF BABYLON. 45 

walls, made fifty splendid streets, crossing each other at right 
angles, and dividing the whole city into six hundred and seventy, 
six squares. 

It should, however, be remarked that not all of these squares 
were occupied by inhabitants. Nor did the houses stand con- 
tiguous to each other; but they were separated by gardens, 
which served both as productive lands and as embellishments to 
the city. 

2. Quays and Bridge. — As the great river Euphrates flowed 
through Babylon, a thick and high wall was built on each bank, 
of the same materials with the walls that surrounded the city. 
In this wall, at every street that led to the river, were gates of 
brass, and from them easy descents to the river itself, which the 
inhabitants crossed in boats, before a bridge was constructed. 
These brazen gates were always open during the day, but shut 
during the night. 

The bridge was not surpassed by any of the other works, either 
in strength or beauty. The arches were made of huge stones, 
fastened together with chains of iron and melted lead. 

3. Ditches and Canals. — These works, which elicited so much 
admiration from succeeding ages,* were still more useful than 
magnificent. As in the beginning of summer the sun melts the 
snows that cover the mountains of Armenia, an unusual quantity 
of water flows into the Euphrates, and annually occasions an in- 
undation similar to that produced by the Nile in Egypt. In 
order to avoid the injury which both the city and the neighbor- 
ing plains were apt to sustain from those inundations, at a consi- 
derable distance from the town and in an elevated situation, two 
artificial canals were cut which turned the excess of the water 
into the Tigris, before it reached Bab3don. 

But, to facilitate the construction of the preceding works, the 
course of the river itself had to be turned for a time in another 
direction. This was indeed an arduous undertaking; but the 
Babylonian kings spared neither trouble nor expense to secure 
the welfare of their capital. They caused to be dug, at some 
distance west from Babylon, a prodigious lake, having, according 
to the lowest calculation, a circumference of one hundred and 
forty miles, and a depth of thirty-five feet. Into this lake the 
whole river was turned through a canal cut at the western side 
of it, till the works above mentioned were completed, when it was 
made to flow again in its former channel. Lest however the 

* See Herod, b. i ; — Pliny, b. v ; — Strab. b. xvi ; — Prideaux's Con- 
nections, vol. i, pp. 197, 198; — Goguet, Be VOrigine des Lois, etc. vol. iii, 
b. iii, ch. iii, art. i ; — Rollin, vol. ii ; etc. 



46 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part II. 

Euphrates might still, in times of extraordinary inundation, over- 
flow the city, this lake was preserved as well as the canal from 
the river. The superabundant water which those overflowings 
caused to run into it, was kept there as in a common reservoir, 
to be let out at proper times, by means of locks and sluices, for 
the watering of the lands below. The lake therefore was equally 
useful in protecting the country against inundations, and render- 
ing it fertile. 

4. Palaces and Hanging Gardens. — At one extremity of the 
bridge, on the eastern side of the river, was the old palace of the 
Babylonian kings, and |jn the opposite side stood the new palace 
built by Nabuchodonosor II. It was, according to the custom 
of those times, strongly fortified, surrounded by three walls, and, 
together with the enctesures, it covered a space of eight miles. 
Within its precincts were the hanging gardens, so much extolled 
by the generality of historians, although by some passed over in 
silence or called in question. According to the former, these 
gardens consisted of several large terraces, raised above one 
another, so as to be on a level with the ramparts of Babylon. 
They were supported by strong walls and pillars, well floored 
with cement and lead, and covered with a great quantity of earth 
in which the most beautiful trees and shrubs were planted. 

5. But the most wonderful structure of Babylon was the temple 
o/Belus. There was in the midst of it a lofty tower more than 
six hundred feet high, and consequently higher than the largest 
of the Egyptian pyramids, although not so broad at its base. 
Many learned men believe it to have been the same with the 
tower of Babel; and this is the more probable, as besides the 
resemblance of the names Babel and Babylon, the materials in 
the two structures were exactly the same, bricks and bitumen. 

On the top of the tower was a kind of observatory in which 
the Babylonians or Chaldeans made, from the earliest period, 
astronomical observations, and became expert in that science, 
perhaps beyond all other nations of antiquity. It is related 
that when Alexander took Babylon (b. c. 331), Callisthenes the 
philosopher, who accompanied him, found that these scientific 
observations of the Chaldeans had begun 1903 years before; 
which carries the account as far back as the 115th year after the 
deluge, or the 14th after the building of the tower of Babel. 

The other wonders of the temple of Belus consisted chiefly in 
an 'immense quantity of statues, tables, cups, and other vessels 
which it contained, all of solid gold. Among the statues, there 
was one forty feet high, and weighing a thousand Babylonian 
talents. The whole value of these different articles amounted, 



SEMIRAMIS, ETC. 47 

according to the calculations made by Piodorus Siculus, to six 
thousand three hundred Babylonian talents of gold, probably 
more than a hundred millions of dollars. 

This famous temple stood until the time of Xerxes, who, on 
his return from his unhappy expedition into Greece, first stripped 
it of all its treasures, and then razed it to the ground (b. c. 478). 

Such were the mighty and splendid works that rendered 
Babylon, as it were, the queen of the east. Some of them, as 
we have already said, were attributed to Semiramis, to whose 
reign it is now time to return. 



SEMIRAMIS CONTINUED. NINYAS. 

DECLINE AND FALL OF THE FIRST ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. 

Semiramis did not confine her attention and care to the city 
of Babylon. She visited all the parts of her empire, and every- 
where left monuments of her magnificence, by the many noble 
structures which she caused to be reared for the convenience or 
the ornament of cities. She applied herself particularly to have 
water brought by aqueducts to such places as needed it, and to 
improve the roads, by cutting through mountains and filling up 
valleys. In the time of Diodorus the historian (shortly before 
the coming of Christ), there were still monuments to be seen in 
many places with her name inscribed upon them. 

Not satisfied with the vast extent of her dominions, she en- 
larged them by new conquests. Pier last and greatest expedition 
was against India, which she invaded with numberless troop3 
assembled from all the provinces of her empire. At the news 
of this invasion, the Indian king sent ambassadors to ask her who 
she was, and what right she had to attack his territory; adding 
that her boldness would soon meet with the punishment which 
it deserved. "Tell your master/' answered the queen, "that in 
a short time I myself will let him know who I am." She im- 
mediately advanced towards the great river Indus, from which 
the country takes its name, and having prepared a large number 
of boats, attempted the passage. It was vigorously opposed; 
still the Indians were put to flight after a sharp conflict; about 
a thousand of their boats were sunk, and more than a hundred 
thousand of their troops taken prisoners. 

Encouraged by the success of this first attempt, Semiramis left 
a body of sixty thousand men to protect a bridge of boats which 
she had built over the river, and prepared to advance still farther 



48 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part II. 

into the enemy's country. This determination was precisely 
what the Indian monarch desired. To inspire her with still 
greater confidence and security, he feigned a flight at her ap- 
proach; but no sooner did he perceive that she had advanced 
sufficiently far into the heart of his dominions, than facing about 
he attacked her with a great multitude of men and elephants. 
Here the engagement proved disastrous for Semiramis and her 
troops. Notwithstanding all her exertions to animate and rally 
them, they were thrown into disorder, and either routed or 
crushed under the feet of the elephants; and the queen herself, 
having received two wounds, was indebted for her preservation 
to the swiftness of her horse. 

This signal defeat obliged her to retrace her steps, and to re- 
cross the river; but at this juncture also, on account of the pre- 
cipitancy and confusion unavoidable on such occasions, many of 
the Chaldeans perished. As soon as the survivors had effected 
their passage, the queen ordered the bridge to be destroyed, in 
order to prevent any farther pursuit from the enemy. Having 
then proceeded to the city of Bactra, where an exchange of pri- 
soners took place, she put an end to this unhappy expedition 
which had cost her two-thirds of her army. 

The failure of this undertaking did not prevent Semiramis from 
leaving behind her a great reputation for skill and courage. It 
is said that, on a certain day, when a serious disturbance had 
arisen, her presence alone suppressed the sedition. Less success- 
ful against the intrigues of her son Ninyas, she resigned the 
crown in his behalf, and placed the government in his hands; a 
fact, however, still more uncertain than the rest of her history, 
and very differently represented by authors. Whatever may 
have been the case, this celebrated queen is believed to have 
lived sixty-two years, during forty-two of which she occupied the 
throne. 

Ninyas reigned in the place of his mother. An unworthy 
successor of both Ninus and Semiramis, he became indolent and 
effeminate, seldom showing himself to his people, but maintain- 
ing his authority by a large number of troops stationed about 
him in Ninive, and placed under the command of a general on 
whose fidelity he could depend. His successors for thirty gene- 
rations imitated his example; so that Assyrian history offers 
little during all that time but an uninteresting list of names. 

The last of these insignificant monarchs was Sardanapalus, the 
very personification of effeminacy and luxury. His degrading 
conduct provoked to the highest pitch the indignation of Arbaces, 
governor of Media, and of Belesis, governor of Babylon; they 



LEARNING, INDUSTRY, ETC. 49 

entered into a confederacy against him, and placed themselves at 
the head of numerous troops whom they persuaded to second 
their views. The king, being obliged to take up arms, gained 
at first some advantage over the insurgents ; but he was entirely 
defeated in a decisive battle, and compelled to confine himself 
within Ninive his capital, which was soon besieged by the vic- 
torious army. 

It happened at this time that an extraordinary swelling of the 
Tigris destroyed a considerable part of the city wall, as if to open 
a free passage to the assailants. Sardanapalus, judging it inex- 
pedient or impossible to resist any longer, shut himself up in his 
palace, and voluntarily perished in the flames with his wives and 
treasures, towards the middle of the eighth century before the 
Christian era. 

Thus ended the first Assyrian empire, after a duration of five 
hundred and twenty years according to Herodotus, and thirteen 
or fourteen hundred years according to Ctesias, Diodorus and 
Justin. We will see, in the next part, what mighty states arose 
from the wrecks of this ancient monarchy. 

LEARNING, INDUSTRY, RELIGION, AND MANNERS OF THE 
ASSYRIANS AND BABYLONIANS. 

The stupendous walls, palaces, fortifications and other build- 
ings of both Ninive and Babylon, bear ample testimony to the 
progress which the Assyrians had made in architecture. This 
art however was confined among them, as among the Egyptians, 
to one kind of remarkable monuments, viz. : to such as were 
grand and imposing by their height or size, but without those 
elegant forms and proportions that architecture afterwards re- 
ceived from the Greeks and the Romans. 

The objects in which the industry of the Assyrians and Baby- 
lonians chiefly appeared, were the manufacturing of cloth, the 
casting of metals, and the production of specimens of splendid 
workmanship in gold, silver, brass, wood and stone. Their com- 
merce is generally believed to have been extensive, and very 
actively carried on, through the Persian gulf with the eastern, 
and through the Euphrates and Tigris with the western and 
northern countries. 

Music was not unknown to the Assyrians, but it would be 
difficult to ascertain how far they excelled in it. Generally 
speaking, it may be said that they yielded only to the Greeks in 
those arts which are conducive to ornament or comfort. Their 
medical science consisted less in theory than in practice. Sick 

5 



50 ANCIENT HISTORY. Paet IL 

persons were publicly exposed; they who passed near them, in- 
quired into the nature of the disease, and, if they had experi- 
enced any such infirmity, mentioned the remedy with which they 
had effected a cure. When the application of the remedy proved 
successful, the whole process was made the object of a report 
which they deposited in a temple for the benefit and instruction 
of others. It is said that Hippocrates, the author of the first 
books on medicine, availed himself of these observations and 
experiments. 

The Babylonians or Chaldeans probably advanced farther in 
the knowledge of astronomy than in any other science. Being 
favored with a vast horizon where the sight was obstructed by no 
mountain, and with a constantly serene sky which invited them 
to an exact observation of the heavenly bodies, they discovered, 
from an early period, that the solar year is composed of 365 
days and nearly 6 hours. To them is also ascribed the invention 
of the dial. Unfortunately, their astronomical science soon 
degenerated into the follies of astrology, an art (falsely so called) 
which presumes to know and foretell future contingencies from 
the site and motions of the stars. Hence Chaldea was, if not 
the parent country, at least the principal seat of the superstitions 
of magic ; this last word is derived from Magi, the name given 
to the Chaldean doctors. 

The religion of the Assyrians and Babylonians was downright 
idolatry. They had a number of temples consecrated to their 
different idols, such as those of Nesroch,* of Belus, one of their 
ancient kings;")* of the sun, moon, and other heavenly bodies, etc. 
They honored these pretended deities by every kind of supersti- 
tious, degrading, and cruel or impure homages; and the natural 
consequence of this impious worship was that its abettors set no 
bounds to the licentiousness and profligacy of their manners. It 
was this, indeed, as we learn from the writings of the prophets,.")" 
that justly provoked the indignation of Heaven against so perverse 
a nation, and finally drew down the heaviest strokes of divine 
justice on the cities of Ninive and Babylon. 

* 4 Kings xix, 37. f Dan. xiv, 2. 

% Jonas, Nahum, Isaias, Daniel, and several others. 



B. o. 1095—1055. REIGN OF SAUL. 51 

THE ISRAELITES UNDER THEIR KINGS. 
REIGN OF SAUL.— e. c. 1095—1055. 

The history of the Israelites during the same period is highly 
interesting. In a political point of view, it certainly was the 
most brilliant part of their national existence. 

After the wise and prosperous administration of Samuel, the 
last of their judges, they asked to be governed like other nations 
by a king. In compliance with their wishes, Saul, the son of 
Cis, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, was anointed by Samuel to 
be their sovereign, according to an order which the prophet had 
received from God himself, b. c. 1095. The majestic appearance 
of Saul, his courage, and his moderation in the beginning of his 
reign, soon gained him the respect and affection of all the people. 
Being informed that the city of Jabes was closely besieged by 
the Ammonites, he raised a valiant army, approached their camp 
during the night, and attacked them on three different sides with 
so much resolution, that nearly all were cut to pieces; the 
remnant fled, and the town was gloriously delivered. In conse- 
quence of this happy event, Samuel., whose ascendency over the 
people was still very great, convened another general assembly 
at Galgal, to confirm the election of Saul. This was done with 
great solemnity and gave universal satisfaction. 

Two years after, the king engaged in a still more important 
war. The Philistines, a powerful tribe near his frontiers, and 
the most persevering enemy of the Hebrews, had invaded their 
territory with a large body of infantry, cavalry and charioteers. 
Saul marched against them, and with the help of his intrepid son 
Jonathan and God's special protection, he gained over them a 
signal victory. 

He likewise conquered several other tribes in the neighbor- 
hood of his kingdom, but none so completely as the nation of the 
Amalecites, which was nearly all destroyed. Unfortunately, he 
began about this time to degenerate from his former virtue, and 
by repeated acts of disobedience to the divine will, to lose for 
himself the fruit of so many victories. On one occasion, he pre- 
sumed to offer a sacrifice without the co-operation of Samuel ; 
and on another, he spared the life of Agag, king of Amalec, with 
the most valuable portion of the booty, against the express order 
which he had received from God. For this reason the Almighty 
rejected him, and destined his crown to pass to David, a youth 
of the tribe of Juda; Samuel, by the divine command, anointed 



52 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part II. 

David king, in the midst of his brethren. The prophet died 
shortly after this event. 

Saul however won another great victory over the Philistines. 
For this new advantage;, he was principally indebted to the valor 
of David, who with a mere sling defeated and slew the famous 
giant Goliath, the most formidable champion of the Philistines. 
This exploit raised David exceedingly in the estimation of the 
army and people; but the honor paid on this occasion to the 
young hero, excited the anger and jealousy of Saul against him. 

The last part of this unhappy monarch's reign was but one 
continued series of evils and crimes. He now persecuted David 
and those whom he suspected to be his adherents, and sought by 
every means to deprive him of life. To this relentless hatred 
and animosity he added superstition ; contrary to the severe edicts 
lately published by himself against magicians, he consulted the 
sorceress of Endor, for the purpose of knowing, through her im- 
pious art, what would be the result of a new battle which he was 
preparing to fight against the Philistines. 

The power of G-od, anticipating the wicked practices of necro- 
mancy, caused Samuel to appear, and to announce to the king 
his final defeat and approaching death.* The prediction was 
verified; the army of Saul was cut in pieces; three of his sons 
were slain in battle; and he himself, grievously wounded and 
dreading to fall alive into the hands of the enemy, requested his 
armor-bearer to despatch him with a sword. On the refusal of 
that officer, the king destroyed himself by falling on his own 
sword, after a reign of forty years, B. c. 1055. 

REIGN OF DAVID.— b. c. 1055—1014. 

The Jewish sceptre passed into the hands of David. He was 
again publicly anointed king at Hebron, a city of the tribe of 
Juda; yet, for seven years and a half, he was acknowledged by 
that tribe only, whilst the other Israelites acknowledged for 
their sovereign, Isboseth, a son of the late monarch. This occa- 
sioned a long war between the two families, and some conflicts 
took place, in which the house of Juda always had the advan- 
tage. At last, Isboseth and Abner, the general of his troops, 
having both lost their lives, David was proclaimed -king over all 
Israel. 

His first care, when he saw his power fully established, was to 
attack the fortress of Sion or Jerusalem, which was still occupied 
by the Jebusites, a Chanaauite nation. Notwithstanding the 
* 1 Kings xxviii, 11 — 19. 



b. c. 1055—1014. REIGN OF DAVID. 53 

strength of the place, he took it, added to it many new buildings, 
and made it the capital of his kingdom and the seat of his resi- 
dence; hence it was also called, from that time, the city of 
David. Hither he had the ark of the covenant transported with 
great solemnity. He even thought seriously of rearing a mag- 
nificent temple for the divine worship; but Almighty God told 
him by a prophet that this great work was reserved to his son 
Solomon. 

David was thus left to follow his warlike ardor against the 
enemies of his people. Constantly favored by the divine assist- 
ance and well-seconded by the natural bravery of his nation, he 
conquered all his foes, whether they fought separately, or com- 
bined their forces against him. The Philistines, in particular, 
experienced from him so many signal defeats, that they ceased 
to be formidable to the Israelites. The next campaigns wit- 
nessed the successive overthrow of the Edomites, the Moabites, 
the Ammonites, and especially of the Syrians, who lost, in a first 
battle, twenty-two thousand men, and no fewer than eighty-seven 
thousand in another.* The Hebrews, whether led to the field 
of battle by the king in person or by his general Joas, were 
everywhere victorious, and they pushed their conquests as far as 
the river Euphrates. 

David had now reached the height of power and glory. All 
his enemies had been humbled and subdued; all the neighboring 
states had sought his alliance, or become his tributaries; he was 
besides surrounded by valiant troops, excellent officers, and a 
numerous offspring. In the midst of this prosperity, the king, 
as too often happens in similar circumstances, forgot himself and 
his duty towards both God and men: he suffered an evil passion 
so far to prevail upon him as to become guilty of adultery and 
homicide. Being rebuked for this double crime by a man of 
God, he became sensible of its enormity, and wept bitterly for 
the evil that he had committed. Upon tBis, the same prophet, 
in the name of God, assured him of his pardon as to the removal 
of his guilt; still a severe retribution awaited him, as a just 
punishment of his iniquity and a reparation of the scandal which 
he had given to his people. 

* This whole number is not thus expressed in any part of Scripture, 
but is deduced from two different verses, the second of which mentions 
what had been partly, though not without reason, omitted in the first ; 
(see 2 Kings x, 18, compared with 1 Paralip. xix, 18.) As we read 
moreover (2 Kings x, 19), that, on the same occasion, fifty-eight thou- 
sand of the enemy fled away before Israel, it follows that the combined 
army of the Syrians and their auxiliaries amounted, before the battle, 
to one hundred and forty-five thousand soldiers. 



54 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part II. 

This prediction was speedily verified. Misfortunes and afflic- 
tions of every description began to assail David : his days were 
imbittered by the premature and unhappy death of some of his 
children, by the wicked lives of others, and especially by the 
ingratitude, revolt and tragical end of his son Absalom. This 
rebellion was no sooner suppressed than it was followed by 
another, which renewed the king's anxiety; and afterwards by 
the plagues of famine and pestilence that raged among his 
subjects. 

These domestic and political trials were at length terminated; 
tranquillity was restored to the nation, and prosperity to the 
king. He died in an advanced age, after a reign of forty years, 
leaving behind him the well-deserved reputation of a great mon- 
arch, a great conqueror, a great prophet (in his admirable 
psalms), and although for a time a slave to a criminal passion, 
yet a model for all sincere and humble penitents. 

REIGN OF SOLOMON.— b. c. 1014—975. 

Solomon was the successor of David. Under this new sove- 
reign, the Hebrew nation enjoyed an almost uninterrupted peace, 
opulence and prosperity. As the late civil feuds had lasted too 
short a time to deprive it either of its power or of its conquests, 
the strength of the state appeared to be the same as under the 
vigorous administration of David. The population was immense ; 
the people lived contented and happy; " Solomon had," more- 
over, "under him all the kingdoms from the river (Euphrates) to 
the land of the Philistines, even to the border of Egypt: and 
they brought him presents, and served him all the days of his 
life." Finally, he established, in concert with the Tyrians, an 
extensive maritime trade, the profits of which, added to the vast 
amount of treasures he had inherited from his father, put him in 
possession of immense riches. Thus was perfectly fulfilled the 
promise which the Almighty had made in his behalf, when he, 
in the beginning of his reign, having asked only for the gift of 
wisdom, received in addition to it, the assurance of extraordinary 
wealth and glory.* 

Solomon availed himself of so many advantages, to build in 
Jerusalem a temple worthy, by its magnificence, to be the house 
of solemn worship and the special residence of the Most High. 
This wondrous structure occupied upwards of one hundred and 
fifty thousand workmen, and required full seven years for its 
completion. It was made of the most costly materials, and 
* See 3 Kings iii. 



b. c 975—742. KINGS OF JUDA, ETC. 55 

adorned with the most beautiful specimens of art. Its dedication 
took place in the eleventh or twelfth year of Solomon's reign, 
B. c. about 1000. 

The king built also a palace of unrivalled splendor, and founded 
many cities in various parts of his dominions. One of them 
called Tadmor, but afterwards Palmyra, subsequently rose to a 
degree of prosperity, that made it one of the most conspicuous 
places of all the east. 

Finding that there were yet in Palestine some remnants of 
the ancient Chanaanites, Solomon subdued them and made them 
tributary.. To these great achievements, he added the reputation 
of an extraordinary prudence, which gained him the admiration 
of both subjects and foreigners, and of extensive learning, not 
only in matters connected with morality and religion, but like- 
wise in the various branches of natural history.* 

Still, however splendid were the gifts of nature and grace 
which Solomon had received, he had towards the end of his life 
the misfortune to be seduced, by foreign alliances, from God's 
service into the impious practices of idolatry. He died after a 
reign of forty years (b. C. 975), leaving behind him a serious 
doubt whether he ever rose from his fall, and did penance for 
his infidelity; a most terrible example of the frailty of the 
human heart, showing that neither talents, nor wisdom, nor 
advanced age, nor even the long practice of virtue, can give per- 
fect security against its attacks. 



SCHISM OF THE TEN TRIBES. 

KINGS OF JUDA FROM ROBOAM TO ACHAZ.— b. c. 975—742. 

PROPHETS. 

The death of Solomon was followed by the separation of the 
two kingdoms of Juda and Israel. As he had during the last 
years of his administration laid heavy taxes on the people, all 
Israel came to Roboaui, his son and successor, earnestly petition- 
ing for their suppression. The new sovereign, rashly preferring 
the advice of his young to that of his old counsellors, answered 
the request of the people by a stern and threatening refusal. 
Ten of the twelve tribes immediately withdrew from the as- 
sembly, and chose for their king Jeroboam, a man of great 
natural talents and of still greater ambition, who fearing lest his 
* 3 Kings iv. 



56 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part II. 

subjects should, by going to adore in Jerusalem, return to their 
former allegiance, made them offer their worship to two golden 
calves which he set up at the two extremities of his kingdom. 
Thus was the crime of idolatry added to the guilt of separation 
and schism. 

It is true, however, that the impious orders of Jeroboam were 
not obeyed by all the Israelites. The whole tribe of Levi and 
various families from the other tribes went to join those of Juda 
and Benjamin, which had remained faithful to the royal family 
of David. This additional force greatly increased the power of 
Roboam; still, he could not succeed in bringing back his former 
subjects to obedience. On the contrary, in punishment of his 
own personal infidelities and those of his people, he had the new 
mortification to see the country invaded, Jerusalem taken, and 
the public treasure carried away by Sesac, king of Egypt. He 
died after an inglorious reign of seventeen years, and was suc- 
ceeded on the throne by his son Abias, B. c. 958. 

Under the last reign, hostilities had been carried on between 
the kingdoms of Juda and Israel; but they were now renewed 
with greater fury than ever. Abias marched at the head of four 
hundred thousand chosen men against Jeroboam, who himself 
had an army of eight hundred thousand soldiers full of resolu- 
tion and courage.* When these two powerful hosts approached 
each other, the Jewish monarch, from an eminence, began to 
deliver an animated exhortation to the Israelites, urging them 
not to fight against their brethren, nor to resist the God of their 
fathers. In the meanwhile, Jeroboam was extending his army, 
with a view to surround the Jews on all sides. The latter per- 
ceiving their danger earnestly implored the divine assistance, 
and after the priests had sounded their trumpets, fought with 
such valor and success that there fell, on the side of Jeroboam, 
five hundred thousand men.*}* This is the greatest number upon 
record of slain and wounded in any battle, whether of ancient or 
modern history. 

This decisive engagement exceedingly weakened the kingdom 
of Israel, and gave a great superiority to that of Juda. Yet, by 

* The vast multitude of troops in these armies might, at first, appear 
almost incredible, especially if we take into consideration that the 
united kingdoms of Israel and Juda did not equal, in extent of terri- 
tory, one of our largest States. But our surprise will disappear, if we 
call to mind, first, that every man capable of bearing arms, was, in 
cases of necessity, obliged to perform military service ; and, secondly, 
that the country was very thickly inhabited. See 3 Kings iv, 20 ; and 
2 Paralip. i, 9. 

| 2 Paralip. xiii, 17. 



b. c. 975—742. KINGS OF JUDA, ETC. 57 

a new and deplorable instance of the frailty of man, so great a 
blessing of God's providence could not induce Abias to persevere 
in the way of virtue. He imitated the infidelity of his father 
Roboam, and died when he had scarcely completed the third year 
of his reign. 

Asa, his son and successor, was more faithful in the service of 
God, and constantly evinced great zeal for the extirpation of vice 
and idolatry; in return, the Almighty blessed him with prosperity 
and success above all his immediate predecessors. He availed 
himself of the peace which his kingdom at first enjoyed, to build 
and fortify cities, and to raise an army of five hundred and eighty 
thousand valiant men. These precautions were not useless. 
Shortly after, Asa was attacked by Zara, the Ethiopian king, 
who marched against him with a million of soldiers and three 
hundred chariots. The religious monarch was not dismayed by 
the sight of this amazing multitude of enemies, but trusting in 
the divine protection, fearlessly went to meet and fight them in 
the plains of Maresa. His hopes were fully realized ; the 
Ethiopian king was completely overcome, and although the 
troops under his command endeavored to escape by flight from 
the fury of the Jews, they were pursued with immense slaughter 
as far as Gerara. Their defeat not only rescued the country 
from a formidable invasion, but also put the conquerors in pos- 
session of an immense number of cattle and camels, and other 
articles of booty; many cities, likewise, fell into their hands. 
After this glorious expedition, Asa and his army returned in 
triumph to Jerusalem. 

This prince is reproached for having in the end failed to place 
full confidence in God, and for having become suspicious and 
irascible. Being afflicted with the gout, he died after three 
years of great sufferings, B. c. 914. He had occupied the throne 
during the space of forty-one years, generally with great advan- 
tage to the nation; and in return, the people paid extraordinary 
honors to his memory. 

The reign of Josaphat, which lasted twenty-five years (b. C. 
914 — 889), was still more glorious and happy. Under him, the 
kingdom of Juda reached a degree of splendor and strength ap- 
proaching to that which it had possessed under Kings David 
and Solomon, when the twelve tribes were yet united under the 
same government. Josaphat had a large number of fortified 
places; and besides the garrisons of these fortresses or cities, he 
had at his disposal an army of eleven hundred and sixty thou- 
sand men.* His alliance was eagerly solicited by the kings of 
* 2 Paralip. xvii, 14—18. See p. 56, note. 



58 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part II. 

Israel; his power was respected at home and abroad; the Philis- 
tines, those ancient enemies of the Jews, paid him tribute, and 
the Arabs brought him considerable presents. 

Josaphat deserved this high state of prosperity by his valor, 
his constant fidelity to God, his exertions against wicked and 
idolatrous practices, his great zeal for the religious instruction of 
his subjects and his impartial administration of justice. He sent 
priests and levites throughout the various cities of Juda, to in- 
struct the people in the divine law; and recommended to magis- 
trates and judges the greatest care, disinterestedness and equity 
in the discharge of their important functions. 

Towards the end of his reign, Josaphat was unexpectedly at- 
tacked by the Moabites, Ammonites and Edomites. In this 
terrible emergency, he had recourse, as usual, to the divine 
assistance which had never failed him, and endeavored to secure 
it by public prayer and fasting. When he approached the camp 
of his enemies, he found that they had turned their arms against 
themselves, and destroyed each other to the last;* the whole 
plain, far and wide, was strewed with their dead bodies. The 
Jews had nothing to do but to carry off their spoils, which were 
so great, that three days were not sufficient for that purpose. 

After this new miraculous mark of God's favor to his people,f 
Josaphat redoubled his works of zeal and piety. This great 
prince enjoyed, to the close of his career, the respect both of 
foreign nations and of his own subjects. He died at the age of 
sixty, after a reign of twenty-five years, and is justly considered 
as one of the most religious monarchs that ruled over the Jewish 
nation. 

He however impaired, in some degree, the splendor of his 
reign, by entering into a close connection with the family of 
Achab, king of Israel. His son Joram married Athalia, the 

* Paralip. xx, 22—24. 

-j- Temporal prosperity is not of itself, and independently of God's 
promise or special interference, a sign of the divine favor, nor an ap- 
proval of the religion and conduct of those to whom it is granted. We 
see it, on the contrary, to be frequently the lot of sinners. Nay, we 
learn from almost every page of profane history, that human glory and 
human happiness were possessed in a high degree by several idolatrous 
nations, such as the Assyrians, the Persians, the Greeks and the Ro- 
mans, assuredly without implying at all the divine approbation of their 
general conduct and religious worship. But the case is altogether 
different, when liberation from imminent dangers, a signal victory, or 
any other temporal blessing is evidently the effect of the special inter- 
vention or miraculous assistance of Heaven. Such was the case with 
the pious princes who have just been mentioned, David, Asa and 
Josaphat. 



B. c. 975 — 742. KINGS OF JUDA, ETC. 59 

daughter of Achab; this marriage produced little or no advan- 
tage to the reigning dynasty of Israel, and occasioned innumer- 
able evils in the royal family of Jucla. Whilst the former 
kingdom, by its perseverance in idolatry, provoked more and 
more the just indignation of Heaven, and rapidly tottered to its 
fall; the latter also, by frequently falling into the same disorder, 
considerably declined. For three or four successive reigns after 
the death of Josaphat, the history of the Jewish monarchs pre- 
sents little else than a series of prevarications, murders, conspi- 
racies and revolutions. It was only during the better adminis- 
tration of Kings Azarias (otherwise called Ozias) and Joatham, 
his son (b. c. 810 — 742), that the state partly recovered from 
its losses and again enjoyed some degree of happiness. 

The reign of Ozias beheld also the commencement of that 
wonderful succession of prophets, whose writings form a consi- 
derable portion of the Old Testament. During the space of 
more than three hundred years, these holy men, filled with the 
spirit of God, foretold the greatest events of both profane and 
sacred history; the destinies and revolutions of empires; the 
vicissitudes of their own nation; the sublime mysteries of the 
New Law; the Incarnation of the Son of God and his coming 
among men, together with the various circumstances of his life, 
death and resurrection; the foundation, progress, qualities and 
perpetuity of his church on earth till the end of the world, and 
his eternal kingdom in heaven. Some of these predictions are 
expressed in so clear and obvious terms, that their inspired au- 
thors seem to have been historians rather than prophets. 

Even the kingdom of Israel often enjoyed the presence of 
similar holy personages, possessed in a high degree of the two- 
fold gift of prophecy and miracles, which they exercised to recall 
the Israelites from their evil ways. Such, among others, were 
the prophets Elias and Eliseus, in the time of King Achab and 
his immediate successors. Nay, one of the prophets (Jonas) 
went by God's command to the idolatrous city of Ninive, to 
invite its inhabitants to penance. His preaching there was ac- 
companied with great success, and furnished a striking figure 
of the future vocation of the Gentiles to the light of the true 
faith. 



60 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part II. 

EGYPT DURING THE SECOND PERIOD. 

RISE OF CARTHAGE. 

Like the Jews after the death of Josaphat, Egypt, ever since 
the reign of Sesostris, had greatly degenerated from her former 
glory. Of all the Egyptian kings of that period, not more than 
two or three deserve even a cursory notice. The first is Sesac, 
of whom mention has already been made in the history of the 
Jewish kings, and who, under the reign of Roboam, the unwary 
son of Solomon, waged war against Judea and plundered Jeru- 
salem. His army consisted of twelve hundred chariots, sixty 
thousand cavalry and an incredible multitude of infantry, in- 
cluding Libyans, Ethiopians, and Troglodites or inhabitants of 
the countries in the neighborhood of the Red Sea. His empire 
therefore, (unless all these were mere auxiliary troops), must 
have extended beyond the natural boundaries of Egypt, and com- 
prised also several neighboring nations. 

This power of the Egyptians was but transient. Under the 
reign of Anysis, their country was subdued by Sabacos, the king 
of Ethiopia, who, however, used his success with moderation. 
He reigned with great clemency, and built several magnificent 
temples, among others, one in the city of Rubaste, of which 
Herodotus gives a long and splendid description. After a reign 
of fifty years, Sabacos voluntarily abdicated the throne and 
returned to Ethiopia, about the time when the first Assyrian 
empire was overthrown by the Medes and Rabylonians. 

Rut, in another country of Africa, there arose during the same 
period a new state which, though weak in the beginning and 
slow in its progress, was destined to shine with great splendor 
for a long time, and to rival even Rome itself in the mastery of 
the world. This was the celebrated city of Carthage, founded 
by Dido, a Tyrian princess, towards the year B. C. 880. That 
princess had escaped from Tyre, with her adherents and trea- 
sures, to avoid the cruel avarice of her brother Pygmalion ; this 
fugitive colony reached by sea the part of northern Africa op- 
posite to Sicily, and having purchased a certain extent of ground 
from the natives, built upon it a city which received the name 
of Carthage. 

Its inhabitants were obliged, at first, to pay tribute to the 
princes of their neighborhood. Rut when their strength had 
increased, they shook off this yoke, and even began to extend 
their power abroad by the subjection of the native tribes, and 



EGYPT, ETC. 61 

the foundation of new settlements along the coast. Although 
there were in the country still more ancient colonies from Phe- 
nicia, such as Utica and Leptis, these, instead of being jealous 
of the rising preponderance of Carthage, formed a sort of con- 
federation of which the new city was acknowledged the head. 
This was the commencement of Carthaginian greatness. It leads 
us to the epoch of the building of a still more illustrious city, 
viz. : the city of Rome ; the future and successful rival of Car- 
thage. 



PART III. 

FROM THE BUILDING OP HOME (b. C. 753), TO THE DESTRUCTION OF THE 
BABYLONIAN AND RISE OF THE FERSIAN EMPIRE (b. C. 536). 



BUILDING OF ROME.— b. c. 753. 

The peninsula of Italy had been gradually peopled by settlers 
from various countries, chiefly Greeks, Gauls, and also, if we 
may believe the Latin historians and poets, by Trojans led by 
iEneas. Among the descendants of the latter, were reckoned 
the kings of Alba in the province of Latium. One of them, 
called Procas, had two sons, Numitor and Amulius, the first of 
whom succeeded his father on the throne; but Amulius, having 
obtained a strong party, dethroned his brother and reduced him 
to the condition of a private citizen. The more surely to deprive 
him of all hope of ever being re-established, he put to death 
Egestus or Lausus, the son of this unfortunate prince, and com- 
pelled Ilia or Rhea Sylvia, his daughter, to become a vestal 
virgin, that is, a priestess of the heathen goddess Vesta, in 
which state of life it was forbidden to marry. 

All these precautions of the usurper proved useless. Rhea 
Sylvia, having secretly married, gave birth to twin brothers, who 
were called Romulus and Remus. Amulius, it is true, in com- 
pliance with his former scheme of cruel policy, gave orders that 
they should be drowned in the Tiber; but the helpless infants 
were saved through the commiseration of FaustulUs, one of the 
royal shepherds, and nursed in his family. When the}' had 
grown up to adolescence, he acquainted them with the secret of 
their birth. They immediately assembled a band of valiant 
shepherds and hunters like themselves, added to them a body of 
their grandfather's adherents, and marching at their head against 
the usurper, slew him in his very palace, and replaced Numitor 
on the throne. 

After this bold achievement, the two brothers resolved to build 
a city on the same spot on which they had been rescued from 
62 



b. c. 753. BUILDING OF ROME. 63 

death, and so to* perpetuate the memory of their dangers and 
their deliverance. They began speedily to accomplish their 
design; but jealousy set them at variance with each other before 
its full execution. Having an equal right and urged on by equal 
ambition, they soon formed parties against each other, to decide 
who should possess the principal authority in their rising state; 
a violent contest arose, and the result of this unnatural struggle 
was the death of Remus, who received a mortal wound, perhaps 
from the hand of Romulus himself. 

Freed from a rival, but probably guilty of fratricide, the sur- 
viving brother completed the building of the new city, and gave 
to it the name of Rome. To supply it with a sufficient number 
of inhabitants, he made it an asylum for every one whom guilt 
or misfortune might compel to fly from his native country. In 
this manner, there w ere soon assembled around him troops of in- 
solvent debtors, fugitive slaves, discontented people, and friends 
of novelty. Such were the first inhabitants of Rome ; and this 
motley band of adventurers laid the foundation of an empire 
which was one day to conquer the world, to astonish posterity 
at the mere recital of its stupendous achievements, and to pro- 
duce a countless number of profound politicians, able generals, 
accomplished orators and scholars, and great men of every de- 
scription. 

All the circumstances just related arc not equally certain; but 
there seems to be no doubt as to the principal facts. Rome was 
built, according to Varro,* the four hundred and thirty-first year 
after the destruction of Troy, and the third year of the sixth 
Olympiad ;f which corresponds to the year b. c. 753. Some, it 
is true, place the foundation of the city a few years later; yet 
Varro's opinion is more commonly adopted. 

The beginning of Roman history being totally unconnected 

* Marcus Terentius Varro lived in the last age of the Roman re- 
public. He was a friend of Cicero, and, for a long time, one of Pom- 
pey's lieutenants. As a scholar and a writer, he is thought to have 
been the most learned of the Romans, and is often quoted as such by 
St. Augustine in his admirable work Be Civitate Dei, e. g. lib. iv, ch. i ; 
vi, 2 ; xviii, 2 ; xix, 22; etc. 

f An Olympiad is a period of four complete years, so called from the 
Olympic games, which the Greeks celebrated at the end of every four 
years at Olympia or Pisa, a city of Peloponnesus, in honor of Jupiter 
Olympian. These games, instituted by Hercules, were after some in- 
terruption re-established by Iphitus (b. c. 88-4). However, their regu- 
lar return was not yet adopted as a system of chronology by the Greek 
historians; the first Olympiad mentioned by them in the computation 
of time, was that in which Corcebus won the prize over all his com- 
petitors (b. c. 77G). 



64 ANCIENT HISTORY. Pakt III 

with that of contemporary empires, we will give here, without 
interruption, an account of nearly all the kings of Rome, from 
Romulus its founder to Tarquin the Proud, under whom royalty 
was abolished. 

ROMULUS.— b. c. 752—715. 

Not less cunning than ambitious, Romulus succeeded in having 
himself acknowledged king by the unanimous consent of the 
people, and began to exercise the functions of a sovereign, 
though not of an absolute monarch. Whenever he appeared in 
public, he was preceded by twelve lictors, or officers carrying 
axes bound up in a bundle of rods, to signify that in him resided 
the greatest executive authority, and the right of enforcing the 
observance of the laws. 

From the beginning of his reign, Romulus divided the people 
into three tribes, having men of distinguished merit at their 
head j and he subdivided every one of the tribes into ten curia?, 
with a priest in each curia to offer the sacrifices. This division 
and subdivision of the people was extended to the partition of 
the Roman territory. Thirty equal portions were allotted to the 
thirty curias, and so distributed as to provide every citizen with 
two acres of land; two other portions were set apart, one to 
defray the expenses of religious worship, the other to form a 
public treasury. 

Romulus afterwards established a permanent body of coun- 
sellors, to share with him in the direction of affairs of state. He 
himself chose its first member, leaving to each of the three tribes 
andpaeh of the thirty curiae the election of three members, to 
be chosen from among the most distinguished citizens. The 
whole number of senators thus amounted to one hundred; it was 
afterwards doubled under Romulus himself, and increased to 
three hundred under his fourth successor. This body, so con- 
spicuous in the history of Rome for its wisdom, prudence, mag- 
nanimity and firmness, was called Senate, from the Latin senex, 
which means "advanced in age;" and those who composed it 
were called patres, either for the same reason, or because they 
were expected to watch with paternal care over those in an 
humble station. The epithet conscnpti (conscript or enrolled) 
was added in the course of time, and, after being peculiar to 
senators recently elected, became finally common to all. 

Besides the institution of a Senate, Romulus founded a royal 
body-guard of three hundred horse. The curiae were directed to 
choose them from the most conspicuous families, ten from each 



B. c. 752—715. ROMULUS. 65 

curia. They were to be always ready, not only to accompany 
the king, but also to march at the first signal for the defence of 
the state. For this reason, they were called celeres (alert), and 
afterwards took the name of Equites (cavaliers or knights') ; but 
they formed a distinct order of citizens only towards the latter 
days of the republic. For many centuries there were but two 
classes of people among the Romans, viz. : that of the patricians 
(paires), or hereditary nobility and descendants of the senators 
originally appointed by Romulus and his successors; and that 
of the plebeians (jpfe&s), which comprised all the other citizens. 

The patricians were exclusively invested with the honors of 
priesthood, the care of sacred things, the administration of jus- 
tice, all civil and military preferments, and the right to pass a 
final decision upon every affair that might be referred by the 
king to their tribunal. But the plebeians shared with them in 
the power to make laws, to declare war and peace, and to elect 
the sovereign, the magistrates and the pontiffs. In all these 
matters the people voted by curias, but the resolutions of the ma- 
jority had no force till they received the confirmation of the senate. 

From all this it appears that the original constitution of Rome 
was neither purely monarchical, nor entirely republican. The 
king, the senate and the people were, in some measure, placed 
in a state of dependence with regard to each other. This mutual 
dependence produced a balance of power, which, keeping within 
bounds the royal prerogative, secured at the same time the rights 
of the senate and the liberty of the people. 

To prevent as much as possible all cause of dissensions between 
the patricians and plebeians, Romulus undertook to establish a 
bond of union between the two orders, by a reciprocity of services 
and corresponding obligations, under the name of patronage aud 
clientship. Every plebeian was allowed to choose, from the body 
of patricians, a patron or protector, and to become his client. 
This contract was placed under the sanction of the civil as well 
as religious laws; and, when thus sanctioned, strictly bound the 
two parties to benefit, help and defend each other, according to 
their relative condition and to the nature or exigency of the case ; 
and so sacred was this mutual obligation in the eyes of the Ro- 
mans, that patrons watched over the interests of their clients, 
and clients over those of their patrons, as if they had been re 
spectively parents and children. 

When the empire of Rome had become extensive, patricians 
had clients, not only in the city, but also in other Italian towns, 
and even in distant provinces. The nations that had been con- 
?• icred sought to place themselves under the protection of some 



66 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part III. 

illustrious Roman family, and commonly chose that of their very 
conqueror; a practice not less advantageous to the vanquished, 
than honorable to the victorious party. 

Romulus made several other regulations for the improvement 
and benefit of his people. Some, it is true, savored of inhu- 
manity or despotism; but many evinced great wisdom and fore- 
sight. He encouraged agriculture by every possible means, and 
adopted such measures for the stability of marriages that not a 
single divorce occurred in Rome during the space of five hun- 
dred years, from the time of its foundation till after the close of 
the first Punic war. 

The more surely to increase the power and population of the 
city, he did not content himself with offering to strangers a free 
asylum within its precincts; he made it a rule to spare the con- 
quered nations, to establish a social intercourse with them, and 
sometimes to grant them the rights and privileges of Roman 
citizenship. By this wise conduct he succeeded, after defeating 
his enemies, in rendering them allies or citizens of Rome, and trans- 
forming within a few years his little original colony into a state 
of considerable importance. In the beginning, his army con- 
sisted of only three thousand infantry and three hundred horse; 
but at his death the infantry amounted to forty-six thousand, 
and the cavalry to one thousand. The kings, his successors, and 
after them the leaders of the republic, followed the same rules 
of government and obtained similar results, so that Rome gradu- 
ally advanced till it became the capital of the world. 

But there was at first a serious difficulty in the way of its 
progress; most of the Romans had no wives, and the neighbor- 
ing nations, through contempt for them or through fear of their 
rising power, were unwilling to enter into any matrimonial alli- 
ance with them. Romulus had recourse to stratagem : he pro- 
claimed a great festival and solemn games in honor of Neptune, 
to which he invited the inhabitants of the towns situated near 
the Roman frontier. Both men and women, particularly the 
Sabines, ran in crowds to the promised spectacle. Whilst their 
whole attention was directed to what was passing under their 
eyes, at a preconcerted signal, their maidens were seized by an 
armed band of Romans, who, partly by force, partly by kindness, 
prevailed upon them to become their wives.* y" . 

* We relate these matters as tliey are found in the generality of his- 
torians. Still, it should be observed that the truth of several incidents 
belonging to the early history of Rome, for instance the rape of the 
Sabines and the various Avars of Romulus or their circumstances, is 
questioned by many able critics. 



d. c. 752—715. ROMULUS. 67 

In the mean time, the fathers of these virgins had left the city, 
fired with indignation and breathing nothing but vengeance. 
First of all, the Cecinians took the field, with their king Acron 
at their head. Romulus marched out against them, and, slaying 
their leader with his own hand, put them to flight and took their 
city at the first onset. Equally capable of performing great ex- 
ploits and enhancing their value, he retraced his steps in triumph 
towards Rome, vested in purple, wearing a crown of laurel on 
his head, and holding in his hand the arms of Acron as a trophy; 
the troops, arrayed as for a battle, chanted hymns in honor of 
their gods, and by their military songs celebrated the praises of 
the conqueror. In this order he advanced towards Rome, where 
he was received with every demonstration of joy, and having 
designated a spot on the Capitolian hill to build a temple, de- 
posited in it the splendid spoils which he had gained. This was 
the origin as well as model of these triumphs subsequently cele- 
brated by the Romans with so much pomp and solemnity. 

Romulus defeated with equal ease two other tribes, the An- 
temnians and the Crustumerians; but the war against the Sabines 
proved a much more arduous and perilous undertaking. This 
nation, besides, having a larger number of troops than their in- 
cautious neighbors, acted too Math much greater prudence and 
energy. Encouraged by the presence of their king Tatius and 
by the example of Mettius Curtius, a general of undaunted 
bravery, they succeeded so far as to make themselves masters of 
the Roman citadel. To dislodge them was not an easy task. 
Romulus fearlessly made the attempt, and the two armies en- 
gaged in a furious combat, the issue of which appeared doubtful 
for a long time, although the advantage, after incredible efforts 
on both sides, began to incline in favor of the Romans. 

At that terrible moment the Sabine women, who had now been 
three years in Rome, ran to the field of battle, and, rushing be- 
tween the combatants, entreated them to desist from an unnatural 
conflict; or else to turn their weapons against those whose mis- 
fortune it was to have been the occasion of so great an evil. 
They were willing, they exclaimed, rather to suffer death them- 
selves, than become widows by the death of their husbands, or 
orphans by the fall of their fathers.* 

So moving a spectacle, and words so impressive, could not 

* Hinc patres, hinc viros orantes, ne se sanguine nefando soceri 

generique respcrgerent Si affinitatis inter vos, si connubii 

piget, in nos vertite iras: nos causa belli, nos vulneimm ac. credium 
viris ac parentibus sumus. Melius peribimus, quean sine alteris ves- 
triim vidme aut orbas vivenius. — Livy, b. i, ch. 18. 



68 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part III. 

fail to go to the heart. The weapons fell from the hands of the 
combatants; a deep silence ensued, which was followed by the 
conclusion of a truce between the Romans and the Sabines, and 
goon after the two kings passed a definitive treaty, by which it 
was agreed that the two nations should be blended into one 
people, over whom Romulus and Tatius would reign together 
with equal authority; that the seat of government should con- 
tinue in Rome; and that the city should therefore be enlarged 
to receive its new inhabitants. All the conditions of this treaty 
were punctually observed. Their fulfilment gave increased 
strength to the state; so that a war which had threatened Rome 
with entire destruction in its very cradle, proved one of the chief 
causes of its future greatness. 

Six years after the conclusion of this treaty, Tatius was killed 
in a private encounter by the inhabitants of Lavinium, to whom 
he had refused to do justice. By his death, the whole power of 
royalty again devolved exclusively on Romulus. He made use 
of it to enlarge the Roman territory, and to conquer all his 
enemies around, whenever by their attacks or depredations they 
provoked hostilities. The powerful tribes of the Fidenates and 
Yeientes at this time felt the strength of his arms; the former 
he entirely subdued, the latter he compelled to sue for peace. 

Thus Romulus prospered in every undertaking; but his very 
prosperity was the first cause of his ruin. If we may rely on the 
vague account of historians, he became haughty and despotic in 
the exercise of his authority, to the great displeasure of the 
senators, to whom he now allowed but an insignificant share, if 
any, in the government of the state. It appears also that he 
was killed in the senate; but a rumor was industriously circu- 
lated among the people, that he had been taken up to heaven 
during the horrors of a dreadful storm. The senators took advan- 
tage of this popular belief to decree that religious worship should 
be paid to his memory, and caused him to be honored as a god 
after death, whom they had detested during life. Romulus had 
lived fifty-five .and reigned thirty-seven years. 

NUMA-POMPILIUS.— b. c. 714— G71. 

After an interregnum of one year, during which the senators 
governed the state, each of them during five days by turn, Numa- 
Pompilius, a Sabine by birth, was chosen to succeed Romulus. 
He was a man of remarkable moderation, and did not accept, 
without much reluctance, the high honor conferred upon him. 
Having at last been persuaded to acquiesce in his election, he 



B. c. 714—671. NUMA-POMPILIUS. G9 

practised upon the throne the same virtues which had character- 
ized his private conduct, and directed them to the welfare of his 
people. He constantly endeavored to inspire them with a relish 
for social principles, respect for the laws, feelings of humanity, 
clemency, and other virtuous dispositions. His eiforts supported 
by his example had an excellent effect, and greatly contributed 
to form the moral character of the Romans. It was he, above 
all, who gave them so high an esteem for agriculture, that, for 
many centuries after him, magistrates and generals were often 
called from the employments of a country life to the highest 
station in the commonwealth, or to the command of armies, 
whence they cheerfully returned, after their term of office had 
expired, to cultivate their small farms with the very hands which 
had saved the state and put its enemies to flight. 

One of the chief cares of Numa-Pompilius was to settle the 
laws relating to property. He divided among the poor citizens 
the lands which his predecessor had conquered, and placed the 
limits of estates under a religious sanction. But his greatest 
labor was about the national worship : he framed the entire ritual 
of the Romans, and enacted a variety of regulations for the 
priesthood, prayers, sacrifices, and other similar objects. His 
zeal for whatever could promote good order, prompted him to 
procure a calendar less deficient than the one then existing; still 
his own, owing to the imperfection of science among the early 
Romans, stood itself greatly in need of reformation. This was 
done only after the lapse of several centuries, first by Julius 
Csesar, and much more successfully, at a later period, by Pope 
Gregory XIII. 

The reign of Romulus had presented an almost uninterrupted 
series of military expeditions; that of Numa was entirely pacific. 
The temple of Janus, which he had erected with the intention 
that it should be open in time of war and shut in time of peace, 
remained constantly closed under him; nay, the influence of his 
example diffused the blessings of tranquillity through the other 
parts of the Italian peninsula. 

Numa-Pompilius died without any apparent disease, at the age 
of eighty-three, after a reign of forty-three years. He left a 
grandson, named Ancus Martins, who succeeded Tullus Hostilins 
the immediate successor of Numa. 



70 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part III. 



TULLUS HOSTILIUS.— b. c. 671—639. 

After the death of Numa, the throne was for a short time 
vacant; at the ensuing election, the choice of the senate and 
people fell on Tullus Hostilius, a distinguished citizen. During 
his reign, an open rupture took place between the Romans and 
the Albans. The armies of both nations soon took the field, and, 
advancing against each other, met at the distance of five miles 
from Rome. Here, in order to avoid an unnecessary effusion of 
blood, it was agreed that, instead of a general battle, there should 
be a combat between three champions from each party, with the 
condition that the issue of this contest should decide the fate of 
the two armies. 

There were at this time in each army, three brothers of great 
strength and valor, the Horatii and the Curiatii. According to 
the more common opinion held by ancient authors and adopted 
by Livy, the Horatii belonged to the Roman, the Curiatii to the 
Alban side. On these devolved the honor of the important con- 
flict. They advanced from their respective camps with equal 
resolution, and carrying within themselves, as the historian ex- 
presses it, the courage of two great armies.* As soon as the 
clashing of their swords was heard, all the beholders were struck 
with awe, and awaited the result with breathless anxiety. 

Soon after this terrible onset, the three Curiatii were wounded, 
but two of the Horatii fell dead. The Albans at this spectacle 
shouted for joy, whilst the Romans were dismayed, and trembled 
for the surviving brother now surrounded by his opponents. 
Fortunately for him, he was not wounded; and although un- 
equal to the task of fighting the three together, was more than a 
match for them singly. To separate them, he retreated, and as 
the Curiatii, unable to keep up with him, were soon at some dis- 
tance from one another, he rushed upon the nearest and slew 
him on the spot, — and successively despatched the other two 
Thus almost the same moment which had witnessed the despair 
of the Romans, saw them in the enjoyment of a complete victory 
won by the prudence and intrepidity of their warrior. 

But the victorious youth sullied the glory of his achievement 
by the murder of his own sister. "Whilst he was returning in 
triumph at the head of the Roman troops, she presented herself 
before him bewailing with bitter tears the death of one of the 
Curiatii, to whom she had been betrothed. In a burst of indig- 

* Infestis armis, terni juvenes magnorum exercituum animos gorentes, 
conctirrunt. — Livy, b. i, ch. 25. 



B. c. 671— G39. TULLUS HOSTILIUS. 71 

nation, lie pierced her with his sword, saying: "Thus perish 
every one that shall deplore the death of an enemy." Whatever 
provocation had been given, this action was justly pronounced 
an atrocious deed; Horatius was condemned to die, but the tears 
of an aged father and the commiseration of the people rescued 
him from the severity of the law. 

In the interim, the Albans had acknowledged their defeat and 
professed their submission to the Romans. They however bore 
the yoke with great reluctance. With a view to shake it off, 
their leader, Mettius Fuffetius, prevailed upon two neighboring 
tribes, the Veientes and the Fidenates, to declare war against 
Rome, promising, if they would make the attack, to pass over to 
their side during the engagement. In consequence of this pro- 
mise, hostilities began, and a battle took place between the 
Fidenates and Veientes on one side, and the Romans and their 
supposed auxiliaries on the other. Mettius gradually withdrew 
his forces from the field, leaving, by this treacherous movement, 
the flank of the Romans uncovered: Tullus, informed of this 
act of perfidy, cried out with a voice loud enough to be heard not 
only by his soldiers, but even by the enemy, that the movement 
of the Albans was made by his command, and for the purpose 
of attacking the Fidenates in the rear. The stratagem had its 
desired effect; the confederates were terrified, and fled; the 
Romans fought with redoubled ardor, and obtained a complete 
victory. 

At that moment the Albans returned with their leader. Met- 
tius, not having dared to carry out his treasonable project, and 
seeing a result so different from what he had expected, congratu- 
lated Hostilius upon his signal success. The king dissembled 
his resentment, but, on the following day, caused the unsuspect- 
ing Albans to be surrounded by his armed troops, and arresting 
their general, immediately put him to death. He then razed 
the city of Alba, and transferred the inhabitants to Rome, where, 
by being blended with the mass of the Roman population, they 
lost every feature of national existence. 

Tullus Hostilius undertook many other expeditions, in all of 
which he was victorious. As warlike at least as Romulus him- 
self, he considerably extended the power and territory of Rome, 
but was carried off in the midst of his successful career, some 
say, by a thunderbolt, others by the dagger of an assassin. He 
died after a glorious reign of thirty-two years. 



72 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part III. 



ANCUS MARTIUS.— b. c. 638—614. 

The nest king was Ancus Martius, a grandson of Numa; he 
held the sceptre twenty-four years, and yielded to none of his 
predecessors in ability and patriotism. Equally brave and reli- 
gious, he repelled all the attacks of his restless neighbors, nay, 
succeeded in taking many of their cities; whilst he was not less 
successful at home in reviving the respect of the Roman people 
for religion, the laws and useful institutions. He was the first 
to build a public prison in the midst of Rome, for the more easy 
and efficacious repression of crime. 

Another enterprise, equally honorable to the wisdom of Ancus 
Martius and conducive to public utility, was the foundation of 
the city and harbor of Ostia, near the mouth of the Tiber. This 
important undertaking was the first step of the Romans towards 
the establishment of their maritime commerce. 

Ancus Martius evinced as much prudence and equity in his 
conduct towards the enemies of Rome, as he displayed activity 
and zeal for the government of Rome itself. It was his practice 
to send them an embassy before hostilities commenced, and not 
to declare war against them, until they obstinately refused to 
give satisfaction for attempted inroads and the wrongs which 
they had inflicted. This moderation appeared so wise, that it 
was subsequently imitated and became a national custom among 
the Romans. 

A premature death carried oif Ancus Martius, in the midst of 
his many schemes and occupations for the good of his people. , 

TARQUINIUS PRISCUS, OR TARQUIN THE ELDER.— b. c. 
614—578. 

Ancus Martius, before his death, had intrusted the care of 
his sons to Lucius Tarquinius, a Grecian by descent, but by birth 
an Etrurian, who had come towards the year b. c. 632, to settle 
in Rome, whither he brought immense treasures, numerous 
clients and all the Etrurian magnificence. By his courage in 
war, his prudence in counsel, and the generous use which he 
made of his revenues, he soon endeared himself alike to the king 
and to all the citizens ; hence after the death of Ancus, he was, in 
preference to the sons of that prince, chosen by unanimous con- 
sent to succeed him on the throne. 

Tarquin, anxious to reward his ancient and to acquire new 
partisans, increased, the number of the Roman knights. He also 



B. c. 578—534. SERVIUS TULLIUS. 73 

appointed a hundred new senators, and ingiatiated himself more 
and more with the citizens at large by instituting the annual 
games of the circus. 

Having thus secured his power, he directed his attention to 
works of still greater utility. The most conspicuous of those 
constructed by his orders, were magnificent aqueducts to provide 
the city with water, and vaulted sewers to convey the filth of the 
streets to the river; these sewers were so stupendous that Rome 
had reason to boast of them even in the time of her greatest 
glory, and such was their solidity, that they have subsisted till 
the present day, during the space of more than two thousand 
four hundred years. The exterior wall of the city, and many 
other buildings equally conducive to its advantage and ornament, 
likewise owed their existence to Tarquin. 

Rome was thus rapidly rising in power and strength, appear- 
ing more and more like a queen in the midst of the neighboring 
cities and states. Jealousy soon armed them anew against her; 
but she found an adequate resource against their attacks, in the 
ability of her sovereign and the bravery of her people. The 
Latins seemed to have renewed the struggle only to supply the 
Romans with an opportunity to subdue several of their cities; 
the Sabines, in their turn, were prostrated after a long and ob- 
stinate resistance ; lastly, a powerful confederacy of twelve 
Etrurian cities was compelled by a series of heavy losses and 
defeats to acknowledge the superiority of Rome. The successful 
termination of each of these three wars procured for Tarquin the 
honors of a triumph. 

He had now reigned with great glory for thirty-six years, 
when, according to a general opinion, he was murdered by two 
vile assassins at the instigation of his former wards, the sons of 
Ancus Martius. This, their tardy vengeance, is by some reckoned 
among fables, or at least doubted. But if the crime was really 
committed, it proved of no avail to its authors, and the throne, 
after the death of Tarquin, was again occupied by a foreigner. 

SERVIUS TULLIUS.— b. c. 578—534. 

The rumor of the king's assassination no sooner spread through 
the city, than crowds from all quarters ran towards the palace. 
Tanaquil, the widow of Tarquin, spoke to them, and said that he 
was not dead nor mortally wounded, and would recover in a few 
days; but that, in the meanwhile, he directed them to obey the 
orders of Servius Tullius, his son-in-law, who would exercise 
provisionally the functions of royalty. This was a mere stratagem, 



74 „ ANCIENT HISTORY. Part III. 

sp 
intended to conciliate respect and obedience to Servius, and by 
tliis means to secure bis election. So it really happened. After 
the lapse of a few days, the deatb of Tarquin was divulged, and 
Servius, though not of Roman but of Latin parentage, was pro- 
claimed king by the assembly of the people. 

It would have been, if not impossible, at least extremely dif- 
ficult to find one more worthy of this honor. Talent and expe- 
rience, generosity and valor, all combined in Servius Tullius to 
render him one of the best and greatest of sovereigns. Forced 
to engage in a new and protracted war against the Etrurians, he 
baffled all their efforts, repeatedly defeated their troops, and 
• compelled them to abide by the treaty of peace which they had 
accepted under Tarquinius Priscus. As to the Latin tribes, whose 
jealousy so often prompted them to take tip arms against the 
Romans, he obtained complete control over them, by inducing 
them all, with equal mildness and skill, practically to acknow- 
ledge Rome as the head of the Latin confederacy. 

Servius Tullius was still more admirable in objects of purely 
civil administration. He instituted the census which was to be 
made every five years; proposed the most equitable distribution 
of charges and taxes; established the easiest and safest way of 
giving votes in the general assemblies of the people, and published 
or framed a variety of enactments held in the highest esteem by 
the Romans. Under him also, and by his direction, the city 
was enlarged to such a degree as to enclose within its precincts 
the seven hills so famous in the history of Rome. 

After having devoted his long reign to the promotion of the 
public good, Servius resolved to give a still more striking proof 
of his disinterested patriotism, by resigning the royal power into 
the hands of two supreme magistrates, to be elected annually. 
His death prevented the execution of his generous design. He 
was cruelly murdered in the midst of Rome by Lucius Tarquin, 
his son-in-law; and his own daughter, Tullia, whose wickedness 
was still more atrocious than that of her husband, carried her 
inhumanity so far as to make her chariot pass over the bleeding 
corpse of her unfortunate parent. Such were the two monsters 
who deprived the Roman people of an excellent monarch, to 
prepare the way for their own tyranny. He had reigned forty- 
four years. But though his death was in itself a great misfor- 
tune, yet, through a special dispensation of God's providence, it 
did not occur till the greatness of Rome was permanently esta- 
blished. 

It is certainly remarkable that all the kings who reigned 
in Rome until Tarquin the Proud, were eminently qualified 



GRECIAN COLONIES. 75 

for the duties of their high station. All of them rendered signal 
services to their nation, and even the difference of their genius 
and dispositions wonderfully contributed to strengthen that state 
as yet in its infancy, and which might otherwise have been very 
much distressed and confined within narrow limits by the jealousy 
of its hostile neighbors. 

The first of these kings, Romulus, prompted by inclination as 
well as necessity to wage almost incessant wars, succeeded in 
forming a warlike and hardy race of people. His immediate 
successor, Nunia Pompilius, naturally inclined to peace, applied 
himself with equal success to the task of softening, humanizing 
and civilizing the rude and wild manners of his nation. Tullus 
Hostilius revived their martial spirit. Ancus Martius and Tar- 
quinius Prisons, with dispositions equally adapted to war and 
peace, promoted at once the different institutions and views of 
their predecessors. Finally, Servius Tullius, during the course 
of a long reign, framed a new plan of government which ap- 
peared so wise and advantageous that it was shortly after adopted 
by" the Romans, and lasted as long as the commonwealth itself. 

GRECIAN COLONIES IN ITALY, SICILY AND GAUL. 

The same epoch which beheld the rise and early progress of 
Rome, witnessed also the foundation of many other celebrated 
cities in Italy, Sicily and Gaul. The spirit of colonization still 
continued among the Grecian states; but the tide of emigration, 
that had before directed its course principally towards the east, 
was now turned almost exclusively towards the west. So great 
indeed was the number of colonies which they established in the 
southern part of Italy, that it was called from them Great Greece, 
Grcecia Magna. 

Among these colonies and the cities to which they gave rise, 
the principal were the following : 

1. Sjjharls, founded by the Achaeans, and built towards the 
year b. c. 720. This city enjoyed for some time a high degree 
of prosperity; it extended its jurisdiction over four neighboring 
states and twenty-five towns, and was able to raise an army of 
three hundred thousand men. But it was still more noted for 
the effeminacy of its inhabitants, which became proverbial. 
Th?y were moreover divided into opposite parties, and frequently 
fell into violent disputes. At last, one Telys, the leader of a fac- 
tion, obtained possession of the chief authority and expelled five 
hundred of the most distinguished citizens; these exiles fled 
for refuge t© the Crotonians, their neighbors, by whom they were 



76 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part III, 

kindly received, and as the Sybarites were highly displeased, a 
war broke out between the two nations. A decisive battle was 
fought, in which the Crotonians with a far inferior number of 
troops completely overthrew the Sybarites, and pursuing their 
advantage, captured and destroyed their city, after it had stood 
more than two hundred years. 

2. Crotona had been founded also by the Achasans, in the 
year b. c. 710. It must have increased very rapidly in power 
and population, since within the second century of its existence 
it could send to the field a hundred thousand or a hundred and 
twenty thousand troops. After many revolutions and vicissi- 
tudes, Crotona fell under the lloman power about the time of the 
war against Pyrrhus.* 

3. Tarentum, situated near the gulf of that name, was built 
by a colony of Lacedaemonians in the year b. c. 707. It became 
one of the most wealthy and powerful maritime towns of the 
continent; but after three centuries, it began to decline, and was 
finally subdued by the Romans. 

4. Locrium and Rhegium, although less considerable than the 

* This city gave birth to many famous athletes, among others to 
Milo surnamecl the Crotonian. Several facts are recorded of him, 
showing that he was possessed of extraordinary strength. He would, 
without breaking it, hold a pomegranate so tight in his hands, that no 
force could possibly wrest it from him. He would stand so firmly on a 
discus which had been oiled to render it more slippery, that it was im- 
possible to move him from his position. When he fixed his elbow on 
his side and stretched forth his right hand fully expanded, with his 
fingers close together, except his thumb which he kept erect, the ut- 
most strength of man could not separate his little finger from the 
others. 

These instances were, it is true, nothing more than a vain show of 
Milo's muscular strength ; but he had much more important occasions 
to display it for the benefit of his country and fellow-citizens. In the 
great battle which the Crotonians fought against the Sybarites, he was 
in the first ranks of the former, and by his herculean exploits greatly 
contributed to the victory of his nation. On another occasion, as he 
was with many other persons attending a lecture of the celebrated 
philosopher Pythagoras, the pillar that supported the ceiling of the 
room happened by some accident to be shaken. Milo, by a vigorous 
effort, supported the tottering column for some moments, and after all 
had left the room, himself succeeded in making his escape. 

The end of this famous athlete, if we may rely on the narrative, was 
very distressing. Seeing, one day, as he was travelling alone, an oak 
tree partially split with wedges, he attempted to split it in two by his 
bare strength. But after forcing out the wedges, his hands were caught 
in the trunk of the tree, owing to the violence with which the parts 
closed ; in this situation, unable to extricate himself, he was devoured 
by wolves. 4 



GRECIAN COLONIES. 77 

cities already mentioned, still were important colonies. The 
former was founded by the Locrians in the year B. c. 683 ; and 
the latter, by the Chalcidians in the year B. c. 668. Their poli- 
tical existence underwent nearly the same vicissitudes as that of 
I Crotona and Tarentum. 

Several of these Graceo-Italian states were greatly benefited 
in their manners, laws and governments, by Pythagoras, Cha- 
rondas and Zaleucus, three able legislators, who flourished during 
the sixth and fifth centuries before the commencement of the 
Christian era. 

5. All the colonies just described occupied the southern and 
south-eastern portions of the Italian peninsula. On the opposite 
or western coast was the very ancient colony of Cumcc; esta- 
blished by the Cumseans of Lesser Asia, which also gave rise to 
many considerable settlements, among others, to Ncapolis or 
Naples, the present capital of the Neapolitan states. 

6. But no city of Grecian origin could at that time rival in 
fame and power, Syracuse in Sicily. It was built by the Cor- 
inthians in the year b. c, according to some, 709, according to 
others, 730 or 735. An admirable position, extensive commerce, 
excellent harbors, walls and fortifications, besides the multitude 
and wealth of its inhabitants, rendered Syracuse one of the most 
nourishing and powerful cities of the ancient world. Its name 
wiLl frequently recur in the following pages. 

7. Marseilles, in the southern part of Gaul, was not at that 
time to be compared for its importance to Syracuse, yet it held 
a conspicuous rank among the western colonies of Grecian origin, 
and was always highly esteemed by the Romans, those excellent 
judges of social and political merit. The greatest men of anti- 
quity, such as Tacitus and Cicero, bear ample testimony in their 
writings, to the wisdom of its government and institutions. 

It was, indeed, generally considered an excellent school, not 
only of the arts and sciences, but likewise of politeness, tem- 
perance and other civil virtues.* It was founded by a colony 
of Phoeseans (inhabitants of PhocaBa in Asia Minor), according 
to some, six hundred years, but according to others, only five 
hundred and forty years before the Christian era. 

* See Tacit. Agric. cap. 4 : — Cicer. Oral, pro Flacco, n. 65 ; — Justin, b. 
xliii, c. 4, 5 ; — Yaler. Maxim, b. ii, c. G ; — Strabo, and Livy passim. 



t* 



78 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part III. 



GREECE DURING THE THIRD PERIOD. 

We must now return from the Greek colonies in the western 
part of Europe, to the country by which they were founded. 
Greece will now, for a considerable time, claim our undivided at- 
tention. What we have particularly to notice about that famous 
country, is the political situation and form of government, 1. Of 
Sparta or Lacedasmon, and, 2. Of Athens; both of which began, 
about this time, to appear the most conspicuous and influential 
of all the Grecian states. 

SPARTA OR LACEDiEMON.— LEGISLATION OF LYCURGUS. 

Not long after the Trojan war, the throne of Sparta was oc- 
cupied by two brothers called Eurysthenes and Procles, of the 
house of the Heraclidas, and both families continued in possession 
of the royal prerogative ; indeed, this new sort of royalty, however 
strange and variously restricted in the exercise of its power, 
lasted several centuries. The nation was composed of three 
classes of people, the Spartans properly so called, the Lacedse- 
monians, and the Helotes or Ilotes. The Spartans were the 
inhabitants of the city and the principal class, having at their 
disposal all the privileges of the state and directing the affairs 
of government. The Lacedtemonkms were the inhabitants of 
the surrounding province, or district of Laconia, bound to pay a 
tribute and to dp military service. The Helotes were slaves. 
When the Spartan kings undertook to impose a tribute on the 
inhabitants of Laconia, those of Helos, a maritime town, openly 
resisted; being subdued by the force of arms, they were, in 
punishment of their resistance, reduced to slavery, and doomed, 
with their posterity, not only to every species of hard labor, but 
also to the most rigorous and frequently inhuman treatment, 
from their fierce and merciless masters. Their name of IMotcs 
was afterwards extended to the other Spartan slaves. 

The political condition of Lacedremon was attended with fre- 
quent disturbances and much confusion. This state of things 
inspired Lycurgus, a prince of the royal family, with the desire 
of undertaking a thorough reformation of the state. To qualify 
himself for this important and arduous task, he at first travelled 
through those countries of the east most renowned for the wis- 
dom of their laws, such as Crete, Asia and Egypt. On his 
return to Sparta, having obtained the general assent of the citi- 
zens, he vigorously set about the execution of his views. 



SPARTA— LYCURGUS. 79 

The hereditary succession of the two sovereigns was retained, 
and they were vested with equal authority; but in order to pre- 
vent the evils of despotism on the one hand, and of excessive 
liberty on the other, Lycurgus instituted a Senate, composed of 
twenty-eight members chosen for life, to hold the balance of 
power between the kings and the people. At a later period, the 
authority of the senate itself appeared too great, and it was 
thought necessary to counterbalance it by the institution of a 
court of five magistrates, chosen annually and called the Eplwri, 
whom the law invested with a coercive jurisdiction even over the 
persons of their kings, in case of misdemeanor. 

Lycurgus undertook next to banish from the state both exces- 
sive poverty and excessive wealth, with all the disorders which 
are their usual attendants. For this purpose he persuaded the 
landholders to put all their property together, and allow a new 
division to be made among all, in order that they and their 
fellow-citizens might afterwards live on a footing of perfect 
equality. 

This scheme, extraordinary as it may appear, and impracti- 
cable in any other than a small state and district, was unani- 
mously adopted. The lands of the surrounding district were 
divided into thirty thousand portions, and distributed among its 
inhabitants; those properly belonging to the capital were divided 
into nine thousand portions, and distributed among an equal 
number of citizens.* It is said that, some years after, as Ly- 
curgus was passing in the time of harvest through the Laconian 
plains, and observing, as he went along, the perfect equality of 
the quantity of corn just reaped by the different proprietors, he 
turned towards those who accompanied him, and said with a 
smile : "Does it not seem as if Laconia were an estate possessed 
by many brothers, who have just partitioned it among them- 
selves ?"f 

The better to sap the very foundation of avarice, he prohibited 
the circulation of gold and silver, and ordained that there should 
be no other current money than iron coin, the value of which he 
fixed so low, that it required a whole room to contain a sum 
equivalent to one hundred dollars, and a cart drawn by two oxen 
to transport the same from one place to another. 

* By inhabitants and citizens must be understood heads of families. 
Reckoning, on an average, five persons for each family, the number of 
portions of land supposes the population of Sparta to have been forty- 
five, and that of Laconia one hundred and fifty thousand. The number 
of slaves alone is thought to have exceeded the aggregate amount of 
the two other classes. 

f Plutarch in Lycurg. 



80 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part III. 

The Spartan legislator gave a deadly blow to intemperance 
and luxury by the institution of public repasts, at which all the 
citizens were to partake together of plain and common food spe- 
cified by law. Black broth was their favorite dish, and men 
advanced in age preferred it to every thing else on the table. 
Dionysius, tyrant of Syracuse, being present at one of those 
meals, found it on the contrary very insipid : "I do not wonder 
at your dislike," said the cook, "for the seasoning is wanting." 
"What seasoning?" asked the prince. "Running, perspiration, 
fatigue, hunger and thirst," answered the cook; "these are the 
ingredients with which we season all our food." 

No one was allowed to take other or better nourishment, be- 
fore coming to the public dining-room. All the persons present 
took particular notice whether any one failed to cat and drink 
like the other guests, and never failed to reproach him with in- 
temperance or excessive delicacy, to which they ascribed his 
dislike for the common diet. The kings themselves were obliged 
to attend these public meals. A long time after the enactment 
of this regulation, King Agis, on his return from a glorious 
campaign, having taken the liberty to cat at home and thus to 
dispense himself with the general law, was reprimanded and 
punished. 

The young men and the very children were allowed < to be 
present at those public repasts, as being a real school of tem- 
perance and wisdom. Here they heard discourses on grave and 
interesting matters, and saw nothing but what tended to their 
instruction and improvement. The conversation was often en- 
livened with ingenious and sprightly raillery, but never disgraced 
by coarse or insulting expressions; nay, if any thing seemed to 
wound the feelings of a guest, the matter was immediately 
dropped and the raillery ended. 

The education of youth was one of the chief objects of Ly- 
curgus' legislation : he would have all children brought up under 
the eyes of prudent and experienced persons, who, being present 
at their diversions and other exercises, might have occasion to 
observe with exactness the spirit and temper of each. But this 
regulation was accompanied by another of a most shocking and 
inhuman nature, on the subject of tender infants. As soon as 
a child was born, it was examined by the elders of each tribe : 
if they found it strong and well proportioned, they gave orders 
for its education ; but if it appeared deformed and weakly, the 
unfortunate being was condemned to die, and thrown into a deep 
cavern near Mount Taygetus. 

At the age of seven years, the Spartan boys were joined into 



SrARTA— LYCURGUS. 81 

companies, where they had their exercises in common, and were 
trained up together under strict discipline. Their education, 
properly speaking, was only an apprenticeship to obedience. 
While at table, they were asked different questions, and obliged 
to give prompt and appropriate answers, conveying in few words 
the reason and proof of their opinion ; hence arose the laconic, 
that is, concise and pithy style for which the Spartans were so 
remarkable. 

As Lycurgus chiefly desired to form a robust and manly peo- 
ple, the principal object in the education of youth was to accus- 
tom them to a hard manner of living. From their early years, 
children were obliged to be frugal and temperate in their diet, 
to go barefoot, to lie on beds made of reeds gathered with their 
own hands, to wear the same clothes in winter and summer, etc. 
This kind of training continually inured them to heat and cold, 
labor and fatigue. They were also taught not to give way to 
peevishness nor to be afraid of darkness, and not to complain of 
bodily hardships and sufferings. 

Their patience and fortitude were most severely tested in a 
certain festival, celebrated in honor of Diana, where, before the 
eyes of their parents and in presence of all the people, they 
suffered themselves to be whipped till their blood flowed on the 
altar of this cruel goddess. They sometimes expired under the 
lash without a groan. Plutarch informs us that he himself had 
seen many young Spartans die under this cruel flagellation \ and 
he relates of one, that, having stolen a young fox and concealed 
it under his garment, he suffered this animal to tear out his 
bowels with his teeth and claws, choosing rather to die than be 
detected. 

It plainly appears from what has been said, that, although 
Lycurgus did not aim at making the Spartans a conquering 
nation, yet his regulations mostly tended to render them a race 
of hardy men and excellent soldiers. Hence, it naturally hap- 
pened that the science of war seemed to be their only study, and 
war itself their favorite exercise. Instead of a hardship, it was 
considered by them as a relaxation; for then, and at no other 
time, the severity of their usual course of life was in some mea- 
sure relaxed. 

Their first maxim with regard to warfare was to conquer or 
die, and never to retreat, how great soever the number of the 
enemy. They who fled during an engagement were rendered 
infamous for life, and might be insulted by any person with im- 
punity. 

The Spartan women themselves partook of the stern courage 



82 



ANCIENT HISTORY. 



Part III. 



of their nation. One of them was known to have told her son 
to return from the battle with or upon his shield, that is, rather 
to be borne back dead upon it, than to throw it away in flight. 
Another having heard that her son had been killed whilst fight- 
ing for his country, very coolly answered, "I brought him into 
the world for no other end." This was the ordinary disposition 
of the Spartans. After the famous battle of Leuctra, the result 
of which proved so fatal to their power, the parents of those who 
were slain in the action congratulated one another, and went to 
the temple to thank the gods because their children had done 
their duty; whereas the relatives of those who survived the 
defeat, were inconsolable. Such was, then, the distinguishing 
feature of that stern nation, a readiness to sacrifice not only every 
thing, however dear, but even every natural feeling on the altar 
of patriotism. 

Another singular though very politic rule followed by the 
Eacedsemonians in war, was never to pursue a vanquished enemy 
beyond the field of battle. For this reason, their adversaries, 
certain of finding safety in flight, were induced to combat with 
less obstinacy.* 

When Lycurgus had completed his work of political and civil 
reformation, he declared to the people that he had to undertake 
a journey, and made them promise upon oath that they would 
be faithful to the new regulations until his return. He then 
withdrew and condemned himself to perpetual banishment from 
Sparta, which in fact he never revisited. Thus his fellow-citizens 
remained pledged by their own promise, never to depart from 
the laws that he had enacted for them and their posterity. 

These important changes in the government and institutions 
of Sparta were effected more than a hundred years before the 
period which our narrative has already reached; but it seemed 

* We have entered into considerable details on the laws of Lycurgus-, 
as the only means of conveying an idea of this extraordinary legisla- 
tion, and of its effect on the character of the Spartan people. Lycurgus 
was certainly a man of great genius, and his laws mast have been, in 
many respects, wise and excellent, since a faithful adherence"to them, 
during four or five hundred years, gave to the Lacedaemonians a great 
influence and ascendency among the Grecian nations. Yet this same 
legislation was, on several points, faulty and unnatural in the extreme; 
for instance, with regard to the wretched condition in which it left the 
slaves, the inhuman treatment of children, and many other regulations 
contrary either to parental feeling or to common decency. These in- 
stances, not to mention others, tend to show the weakness of human 
reason when not guided by the light of revelation, and the immense 
distance between the best code of human laws, and the soundness, 
mildness and purity of Christian principles. 



MESSENIAN WARS. 83 

to us proper to mention them in connection with the time when 
their exterior effects began to appear. Favorable occasions were 
necessary to show how hardy a race the Lacedaemonians were 
under the discipline established by Lycurgus ; these occasions 
presented themselves in the different wars they undertook, first 
against the Argives ; and next against the Messenians. 

CONTEST BETWEEN THE SPARTANS AND THE ARGIVES. 

Under the reign of king Theopompus, or, according to others, 
under Zeuxidames, his successor, (towards the year B. c. 723), a 
dispute arose between the Argives and Spartans concerning the 
limits of their respective states. When the two armies came in 
sight of each other, through a desire of avoiding a general battle 
and considerable bloodshed, a proposal was made and adopted, 
that the quarrel should be decided by three hundred champions 
on each side. The combat which took place between these brave 
soldiers was so fierce and conducted with such animosity, that 
three only of the whole number survived, two Argives, and one 
Lacedaemonian ; nor did they desist, until forced to do so by the 
darkness of the ensuing night. 

The two Argives, considering themselves victorious, went back 
in great haste to carry the glad tidings to their fellow-citizens. 
The Lacedaemonian soldier, however, remained on the field, and 
occupied himself in carrying to the Spartan camp the arms of the 
Argives who had Mien in the bloody conflict. On the following 
day, when both armies reappeared, a new subject of dispute 
arose, to which side victory belonged. The Argives claimed it 
in virtue of the greater number of surviving combatants on their 
side; and the Lacedaemonians claimed it, under the plea that 
their champion had remained master of the field. 

These conflicting pretensions could not be adjusted but by 
coming to a general engagement. Victory declared for the Spar- 
tans, and the limits contended for were consequently settled to 
their advantage. 

MESSENIAN WARS. 

There were several bloody wars between the Spartan people 
and the Messenians their neighbors. The first lasted twenty 
years, from the year b. c. 743 to 723. It produced a variety of 
obstinate engagements, in which success was nearly equal on 
both sides; still, as the Messenians could not so easily recruit their 
forces as their enemy, the result at length turned against them, 



84 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part III. 

and they were obliged to conclude a very disadvantageous 
peace. 

Their submission, being a forced one, could not be considered 
permanent. These unhappy people, goaded to desperation by 
the inhuman treatment and oppression of their conquerors, again 
took up arms to free themselves from so galling a yoke. They 
were now the more firmly resolved to make every exertion in 
their power, as they had only to imitate the heroic example and 
dispositions of their present leader Aristomenes, a prince of their 
royal family, of generous and noble feelings, exalted patriotism, 
and a sagacious, bold, enterprising and intrepid mind, whom no 
reverse could subdue, no danger appal, no obstacle deter from 
vindicating the freedom of his country. 

The struggle was renewed with increased animosity. The 
Argives and Arcadians, alarmed at the growing pretensions and 
ascendency of Sparta, joined the Messenians against this ambi- 
tious city, and the energy with which they made their first 
attacks seemed destined to be crowned with success. Three 
times in succession the Lacedsemonians were signally defeated. 
They had lost almost all courage, when their drooping spirits 
were again revived by the animated exhortations of the poet 
Tyrtseus, the only succor they had been able to obtain from the 
Athenians. In a fourth battle they were completely victorious. 
The loss of the Messenians was immense; and all the exertions 
of Aristomenes, at the head of a few warriors, all his undaunted 
courage and frequent partial successes, could not save his beloved 
country from entire subjection. He then resolved to visit foreign 
courts, probably for the purpose of everywhere raising up enemies 
against the oppressors of Messenia ; but this great man, the 
Annibal of his age, died before he could accomplish his design. 
The remnant of the Messenians were either reduced to the con- 
dition of slaves, or went over to the island of Sicily, where they 
occupied the city of Zancles, afterwards called from their name 
Messina or Messana. 

The second Messenian war lasted fourteen years from the year 
B. c. 684 to 670. Its final result confirmed the preponderance 
of Lacedaemon in all southern Greece. 



ATHENS, ETC. 85 

ATHENS : ITS REVOLUTIONS AND GOVERNMENT. 
SOLON— PISISTRATUS. 

There could be nothing more completely at variance with the 
rude, stern, uniform character of the Lacedaemonians, than the 
livety, polished and naturally humane, though inconstant spirit 
of the Athenians. Athens, their capital and the great rival of 
Lacedamion, had subsisted for a long time as an hereditary, 
though limited monarchy. After the reign of Codrus, who in a 
war devoted himself to death for his subjects, the Athenians 
abolished royalty, and instead of kings, appointed mere magis- 
trates to govern them under the name of archons. The au- 
thority of these rulers was first intended to last for life, but was 
afterwards made to last ten years, and finally confined to one 
year only. 

The power of these magistrates proved insufficient to control 
the minds of a restless people. The disturbances and factions 
which continually agitated the state, prompted the Athenians to 
seek liberty and happiness in a new legislation; the task of 
framing a code of laws was committed to Draco, a person of ac- 
knowledged wisdom and integrity (b. c. 624). He indeed per- 
formed that task; but the laws which he enacted were so severe,* 
that they either could not be put in execution, or soon fell into 
disuse, and the disorders of the state continued as great as ever. 

To remedy this train of evils, the Athenians had recourse to 
Solon, a descendant of Codrus, the last Athenian king. His 
well-known talents and insinuating manners had already won for 
him the respect and affection of the whole city. He was ap- 
pointed archon by the unanimous consent of all parties, and was 
desired at the same time to be their common arbiter and legis- 
lator. 

Invested with full authority, Solon annulled first all the 
statutes of Draco, except the law which inflicted capital punish- 
ment for the crime of murder. It may not be amiss to remark 
that this crime was held in such horror by the Athenian magis- 
trates, that they would not pardon any thing that appeared to 
have the remotest tendency to its perpetration. On one occasion 
particularly, their famous tribunal, called the Areopagus, pro- 

* According to the laws of Draco, small offences as well as great 
crimes were to be punished with death. Kis reason for this strange 
legislation was, that the former faults appeared to him worthy of death, 
and he had no heavier penalty to propose for the latter. 

8 



86 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part III. 

nounced sentence of death on a young boy who had been seen to 
take pleasure in cruelly pricking the eyes of birds; this cruel 
disposition made them fear lest he should afterwards become a 
scourge in society. However no enactment was made against 
the still more enormous guilt of parricide, because Solon con- 
sidered it a crime hitherto unknown and virtually impossible, of 
which it was better therefore to make no mention. 

The legislator of Athens did not think it advisable, as Ly- 
curgus had done at Lacedamion, to divide the lands of Attica 
equally among the citizens; but he took efficient measures of 
another sort, to deliver the poorer classes 'from the state of 
misery and bondage to which their debts had reduced them. In 
Sparta, the almost exclusive occupation of youth consisted in 
bodily and military exercises, and naturally led to a life of war- 
fare; but Solon endeavored to inspire the Athenians with other 
sentiments. Without damping the martial ardor which they so 
often evinced on the battle.-neld, his principal aim was to give 
them a relish for commercial enterprise, works of industry, and 
all the arts of peace. His exertions were perfectly successful. 
No city was ever more distinguished than Athens for master- 
pieces in all the fine 'arts; no people of antiquity more sagacious, 
more polished and more refined than the Athenians. The deli- 
cacy of their taste, feeling and language was astonishing, and 
could be traced even in the lowest classes of society ; as an in- 
stance, it is related that a market-woman discovered the cele- 
brated Theophrastes to be a stranger, merely on account of a 
slight accent in his pronunciation. 

Solon divided all the citizens of Athens into four classes, three 
of the rich, and one of the poor. He left the rich in the exclu- 
sive possession of all state offices, employments and magistracies; 
but, to make up for this exclusion of the poor from the executive 
government, he gave them the right of voting in public assem- 
blies. This privilege might, at first, be deemed of little conse- 
quence; yet, on account of the great number of persons who 
composed this fourth class, it happened to be the most important 
of all, since the greatest affairs of state, those connected with 
war and peace, the choice of magistrates, important trials and 
judgments, etc., were to be decided in the assemblies of the 
people. But in order to preserve a sort of equilibrium and to. 
prepare the way for prudent decisions, a council of four hundrea 
members was established, with senatorial authority and a proviso 
that no subject could be discussed in the general assemblies of 
the citizens, which had not previously received the sanction of 
the four hundred. 



ATHENS, ETC. 87 

Solon, moreover, greatly improved the constitution and enlarged 
the powers of the Areopagus. He made it a supreme court of 
judicature, with a right of censorship on public morals, and the 
momentous charge of enforcing the execution of laws, of which 
it was constituted the guardian. As in compliance with the 
Athenian legislation, none were admitted as members of this tri- 
bunal, except men of superior integrity, wisdom and experience, 
it soon became the most respectable and the most respected body 
in the world. Such was its reputation for justice and sagacity, 
that the Romans themselves referred to its decision certain cases 
which seemed too intricate and difficult for them to solve. The 
only* object which this august senate had in view, was to ascer- 
tain the truth. That external objects might not distract the 
attention of the judges, they held their sessions during the night, 
or at least in a dark place; and the orators were not allowed to 
make use of any exordium, peroration, or digression. 

The various duties or transactions »f domestic and social life, 
had also a considerable share in Solon's code of laws. He enacted 
on these interesting objects, a great number of regulations, most 
of them showing great ability and foresight, and if not the best 
in themseWcs, and in their intrinsic worth, at least the best, said 
he, that the Athenians were capable of receiving. Having com- 
pleted his laws, he caused the people to swear fidelity to them 
for a hundred years, and in order that their various enactments 
might acquire additional strength from usage, withdrew for a 
time from his country. He remained absent during ten years, 
which he spent in travelling, increasing his knowledge and ex- 
perience, and making some stay in the most renowned kingdoms 
of the east, Lydia. Egypt, etc. 

On his return, he found Athens again distracted by civil feuds 
and factions. Soon after, he had the grief to see its liberties 
subverted by the usurpation of Pisistratus, himself an Athenian, 
who. under the veil of moderation and beneficence, cherished an 
unbounded ambition. This artful man, possessed of great riches, 
distributed presents among the poor citizens with lavish munifi- 
cence. His liberality, his eloquence, and the affability of his 
manners, won for him the favor of the common people; and he 
had the art to persuade them that the popularity which he en- 
joyed had so far rendered him odious to the nobles, as to make 
a body-guard necessary for his personal safety. 

The more surely to obtain what he desired, Pisistratus inflicted 
on himself several wounds, and whilst his body was covered with 
blood, caused himself to be transported in a chariot to the market 
place, where he roused the beholders to indignation, by giving 



88 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part III. 

them to understand that he had been thus treated by his enemies 
on account of his earnest zeal for the good of the people. A 
numerous assembly was immediately convened, who resolved, in 
spite of all the remonstrances of Sxuon to the contrary, that fifty 
guards should "be allowed to Pisistratus for the security of his 
person. The crafty usurper soon increased the number to six 
hundred, and having with their assistance taken possession of the 
citadel, made himself absolute master of Athens (b. c. 561). 

Solon did not survive this new revolution more than two 
years. Unable to prevent the usurpation, he endeavored, at 
least, to avert its evil consequences, and in this respect he was 
far more successful.* 

Pisistratus sincerely and perfectly agreed with him about a. 
moderate use of the sovereign authority, no matter in whom it 
might happen to reside. The power which he had illegally ac- 
quired, was administered with equity and mildness. Literature 
and industry, agriculture and commerce, received from him every 
encouragement. The city was greatly embellished by his care; 
the distress of the needy and afflicted- was relieved by his prudent 
liberality. In a word, like Solon himself, though by different 
means, he ceased not to promote, by his exertions, the splendor 
of Athens and the happiness of the Athenian people. 

The important changes and events that followed in Greece the 
death of Pisistratus, will be related at full length in another 
place, when we have mentioned those which happened about this 
time in other parts of the eastern world. 

* Such is the account given by Plutarch, Rollin, etc., of the latter 
years of Solon; but others say that he went into voluntary exile, where 
he died at an advanced age. His great political wisdom, far more 
than his private conduct, gave him a conspicuous rank among the seven 
sages of Greece. The six others, all of them his contemporaries, were 
Thales of Miletus, a distinguished philosopher and astronomer; Chilo 
of Lacedasmon ; Pittacus of Lesbos ; Cleobulus of Caria, or of the island 
of Rhodes ; Bias of Priama ; and Periander of Corinth, or Anacharsis 
the Scythian, whom the Greeks themselves admired for his prudence, 
experience and learning. 



B . c . 747_626. KINGS OF NINIVE. 89 



SECOND ASSYRIAN, AFTERWARDS BABYLONIAN 
EMPIRE : 

COMPRISING ALSO THE CONTEMPORARY HISTORY OF THE MEDES, 
ISRAELITES, JEWS AND EGYPTIANS. 

The dismemberment of the first Assyrian empire, subsequent 
to the capture of Ninive, (see page 49), gave rise to three 
great states, namely, Media under Arbaces, Babylon under Na- 
bonassar, and Ninive itself, which, notwithstanding the terrible 
blow it had received from the two other powers, continued still, 
or at least soon became again the most formidable of the three. 
Its sovereigns, as their names are known from Holy Writ,* were 
in succession Theglathphalasar, Salmanasar, Sennacherib, Asar- 
haddon, and Nabuchodonosor I, or Saosduchinus. To these 
may be added Saracus, called also Chinaladanus, under whose 
reign Ninive was finally destroyed. 



KINGS OF NINIVE. 

THEGLATHPHALASAR.— b. c. 747—728. 

TiHS prince, otherwise little known in history, is mentioned in 
Scripture as having given assistance to Achaz, king of Juda, 
against the kings of Syria and Israel. The Assyrian monarch 
promptly availed himself of this opportunity to extend his 
dominions. He advanced towards the west with a numerous 
army, took Damascus and put an end to the kingdom of which 
that city was the capital. He then proceeded against the Is- 
raelites and subdued a considerable portion of their territory; 
but sparing neither friend nor foe, he made Achaz pay very dear 
for the benefit of his assistance. This strange protector demanded 
of him in return so large an amount of money that, in order to 
laise the requisite sum, the Jewish king stripped both the temple 
of God and the royal treasury of all the gold and silver which 
they contained. f 

Thus the profane alliance so eagerly sought by Achaz, proved 
detrimental to this wicked prince. It served only to exhaust hio 

* See 4 Kings xvi — xix ; 2 Paralip, xxviii — xxxii, etc. 
f 4 Kings xvi, 8 ; 1 Paralip. xxviii, 20, 2] . 
8* 



90 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part III. 

kingdom, and to place near its frontiers the powerful monarchs 
of Assyria, whom Almighty God afterwards used as so many in- 
struments for the chastisement of his people. 

SALMANASAR.— b. c. 728—714. 

This sovereign was destined by Divine Providence to punish 
the schismatic Israelites for their sins and idolatry. He at first 
contented himself with obliging them to pay tribute. But, when 
he perceived that their king Osee was endeavoring to shake off 
the yoke, and had, with this view, taken measures to contract an 
alliance with the king of Egypt, Salmanasar returned at the 
head of his troops, besieged Samaria, and captured it at the end 
of three years. Osee was bound in chains, and imprisoned. His 
subjects also were led away captives, to Assyria, and replaced in 
their own country by colonies sent from the Assyrian states to 
inhabit the Samaritan cities; this new population formed what 
was subsequently called the Samaritan people. As to the king- 
dom of Israel or of the ten tribes, it never was revived, but, in 
compliance with the threats of God's holy prophets, it totally 
disappeared from the eartti. It had lasted two hundred and 
fifty-four years, since the time of its unhappy separation from 
the kingdom of Juda (b. c. 975 — 721). 

Shortly after the reduction of Samaria, Salmanasar died, leav- 
ing the crown of Assyria to his son 

SENNACHERIB.— b. c. 714—710. 

Ezechias, king of Juda, was not deterred by the sad fate of 
the Israelites from refusing to pay to the Assyrians the tribute 
which they had imposed by force on his father Achaz; Sen- 
nacherib therefore immediately declared war, and entering Judea 
with a formidable host, subdued all the fortified towns on his 
way. Ezechias, moved by the sight of their misfortune and the 
danger of his capital, sent ambassadors to ask peace of Sen- 
nacherib, on any terms that he might prescribe. The haughty 
conqueror exacted an enormous sum of money that was instantly 
paid; still he would not desist from hostilities. Having been 
informed that the armies of Ethiopia and Egypt were marching 
to the assistance of the Jews, he wrote to Ezechias letters full of 
insults, blasphemies, and threats of vengeance, which he intended 
to accomplish after returning from his expedition against the 
Ethiopians and Egyptians. 

The danger seemed to be on the increase. The allies in whom 



B . c. 747—620. KINGS OF NINIVE. 91 

tlie Jews, contrary to the advice of Isaias and the opinion of 
their pious king, had placed their confidence, were defeated, and 
Egypt was laid waste by the victorious Sennacherib. He then 
returned with still greater fury than before against Judea and' 
Jerusalem. But here divine justice awaited him to punish his 
pride, his arrogance and his impiety : one hundred and eighty- 
five thousand of his troops fell in one night by the destroying 
hand of an angel.* 

At the sight of this dreadful havoc of his soldiers, the proud 
monarch was terrified, though not moved to repentance; he fled 
in haste to Ninive, where he vented his rage against the Israelites, 
putting many of them to death and stripping others of their pos- 
sessions. His tyrannical conduct rendered him odious to his own 
fiwnilyj he was murdered by two of his sons in the temple and 
near the idol of his god Nesroch. 

The two parricides fled to Armenia, and left the throne of 
Ninive to be occupied by their younger brother 

ASARHADDON.— b. c. 710—668. 

This prince availed himself of the anarchy then prevailing in 
Babylon, to conquer that great city and reunite it to the Assyrian 
empire. He likewise obtained great success in his wars against 
the Jews, who had again provoked the justice of Grod by their 
signal prevarications; their impious king Manasses, the unworthy 
son and successor of Ezechias, was defeated, taken prisoner and 
led in chains to Babylon. Here, seeing himself reduced to the 
utmost distress, the unhappy monarch began to reflect on the 
enormity of the crimes that had brought upon him so terrible a 
punishment. He humbly acknowledged his guilt, and having ap- 
peased the divine anger by his sincere and lively repentance, 
obtained not only his liberty, but even his restoration to the 
throne of Juda, and endeavored to atone by his zeal and piety 
for the evils which he had previously cflfeimitted. 

Asarhaddon continued to govern his vast empire with great 
success and prosperity. He reigned twenty-nine years over the 
Assyrians alone, and thirteen over the Assyrians and Babylonians 
together, in aH'forty-two years (b. c. 710 — 668). 

During this whole period, Egypt, already much weakened by 
the arms of its enemies from abroad, experienced many disturb- 
ances at home. After the death of Sevechus or Scthon and of 
Tharaca the Ethiopian, the very two kings who had been defeated 

* 4 Kings xviii, xix ; 2 Paralip. xxxii, and Isaias, in various chap- 
ters, from the 18th to the o7th inclusively. 



92 ANCIENT HISTORY. Pakt III. 

by Sennacherib, the country fell into a state of anarchy and 
great confusion for the space of two years. All that time the 
Egyptians were unable to make choice of a sovereign. At length 
twelve of the principal nobility conspiring together seized the 
kingdom, and dividing it among themselves into twelve parts, 
began to govern it by a joint confederacy (b. c. 685). 

Strange as this form of government was, it lasted fifteen years : 
as a monument of the perfect harmony which existed among 
them, the twelve kings built at their common expense the famous 
labyrinth consisting of twelve palaces, having as many apartments 
beneath as above the ground. It has been already described 
(Page 24). 

Jealousy or fear occasioned the fall of this administration. 
Eleven of these kings, for some superstitious notion, began to 
entertain suspicions of their twelfth colleague, whose name was 
Psammiticus, and drove him into banishment. Stripped of his 
share of the supreme power, Psammiticus anxiously waited for 
a favorable opportunity of retaliation; it soon presented itself. 
A storm having driven bands of Ionian and Carian soldiers to 
the Egyptian shore, be took them under his banner, levied other 
troops, and marched at their head against his former colleagues, 
whom he completely defeated, thus making himself sole and ab- 
solute master of all Egypt. 

Psammiticus had no sooner established and secured his au- 
thority, than he undertook a new war against the Assyrians for 
the purpose of securing the eastern frontier of his kingdom. 
This war was of long duration. Not till after a siege of twenty- 
nine years, the longest mentioned in history, could he succeed 
in taking Azotum, one of the most important places in Palestine. 

SAOSDUCHINUS, OR NABUCHODONOSOR I.*— b. c. G68— 648. 

At this time Asarhaddon was no longer seated on the throne 
of Assyria. It had been occupied after him by his son Saosdu- 
chinus, or Nabuchodonosor I, who inherited the warlike disposi- 
tions of his predecessors. This prince being attacked by Aph- 
raartes, or Arphaxad, king of the Medes, gained a complete 
victory over his incautious aggressor. He even took Arphaxad 
prisoner and mercilessly put him to death. Pursuing his advan- 

* This last name is written Nebuchadnezzar by many recent authors. 
It seems however that Xabuchodonosor having been used so many ages 
before, ought to have been retained, unless it be proved that modern 
Hebraists and rabbins know better the true spelling of Hebrew names 
than S. Jerom and the Septuagint interpreters. 



B . c. 747— G26. KINGS OF NINIVE. 93 

tage, lie carried his conquests as far as Ecbatana, the capital of 
Media, laid siege to that superb city, and conquered it, notwith- 
standing the strength and number of its fortifications. 

This great success raised the hopes and flattered the pride of 
Saosduchinus: lie aimed at nothing less than the conquest of all 
western Asia, nor did the first effects of his attempt disappoint 
his ambitious expectations; Mesopotamia, Cilicia, Syria, in a 
word, all the countries from the banks of the Tigris to the 
borders of Palestine yielded to his victorious arms. One nation 
only, the Jews, placing their confidence in Heaven, prepared to 
resist him, and to stein that impetuous torrent which had hitherto 
swept every thing in its way. 

Their efforts proved successful. Holophcrnes the Assyrian 
general had undertaken the siege of Bethulia, a strong city built 
on the summit of a mountain. When the place was reduced to 
the utmost distress, Holophcrnes himself perished by the hand 
of a woman, the courageous Judith ; and his troops, consisting 
of more than a hundred and twenty thousand soldiers, were 
either put to flight and dispersed, or fell by the hands of the 
Jews. So great an overthrow delivered the country for a con- 
siderable time from foreign invasion. 

Nor was this the only disaster which the Assyrians then ex- 
perienced; their defeat before Bethulia was of itself a terrible 
blow inflicted on their power, and it served also to rouse against 
them the nations whom they had lately conquered. Cyaxares, a 
courageous prince and heir of the royal family of Media, im- 
proved the favorable circumstance to wrest the whole kingdom 
from their hands. Ardently desiring to revenge the death of 
his father Aphraartes, he fearlessly attacked the Assyrian troops 
that came against him, overthrew them in a great battle and 
pursued the vanquished to the very walls of Ninive. The 
destruction of that city seemed inevitable; but the time had not 
yet come, which the Almighty had marked out for its final 
chastisement. 

Precisely at this period, a formidable army of Scythians de- 
scending from the north under the conduct of their king Mardyes, 
began to invade the Median provinces: Cyaxares hastened to 
the scene of this most pressing danger, marched against the in- 
vaders and gave them battle; in spite of all his efforts he was 
defeated. The conquerors meeting no further obstacle overran 
without opposition both Media and the other countries of Upper 
Asia, and so established their power throughout this vast terri- 
tory, as to maintain it during the space of twenty-eight years. 
They even advanced through Syria and Palestine to the confines 



94 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part III. 

of Egypt; but here Psammiticus prevailed upon tliem by en- 
treaties and presents to proceed no farther, and thus saved his 
country from their unwelcome visit, 

The other states which at first yielded to the arms of the Scy- 
thians, began likewise to make efforts and devise measures to rid 
themselves of these dangerous guests. Many of them were slain 
by the natives ; the others withdrew from the scene of their con- 
quests, and Cyaxares again recovered his kingdom. 

SARACUS, OR CHINALADANUS.— b. c. 648— G26. 

The Median prince now thought more seriously than ever of 
pursuing his projects of revenge, the execution of which had 
been only suspended by the Scythian invasion. The reigning 
king of Ninive was not, it is true, the same who had given him 
so many subjects of complaint; but the chief object of Cj^axares 
was to chastise the grasping ambition of the Assyrians, and this 
was for him a most favorable opportunity to do so, as his present 
opponent, Saracus or Chinaladanus, was not a warlike monarch. 
like Saosduchinus, but a weak, effeminate and contemptible 
sovereign. The king of the Medes, besides, did not neglect to 
avail himself of other means of success. He entered into a close 
alliance with Nabopolassar the governor of Babylon, exactly as 
his predecessor Arbaces had done with Belesis or Nabonassar 
against Sardanapalus. 

Ninive therefore was again attacked by the joint forces of the 
Medes and Babylonians, and again fell under their combined 
efforts. These new conquerors did not treat it with the cle- 
mency which it experienced at the hands of its former captors; 
on the contrary, they completely destroyed it, put its king 
Saracus to death, and enriched their armies with its innumerable 
spoils. 

After this important conquest, Cyaxares easily subdued the 
other cities and provinces of the kingdom of Assyria, with the 
exception of Babylon and Chaldea, which continued in the pos- 
session of Nabopolassar. Hence the Assyrian empire, notwith- 
standing these terrible convulsions, was not really destroyed, but 
transferred from Ninive to Babylon. 



b. c. 626—562. KINGS OF BABYLON. 95 



KINGS OF BABYLON. 

NABOPOLASSAR.— b. c. 626—605. 

By the conquest and destruction of Ninive, the Babylonians 
became so formidable as to raise alarm or excite jealousy in the 
neighboring nations. Pharao Nechao, king of Egypt and suc- 
cessor of Psammiticus, attempted to oppose a barrier to their 
farther progress; for this purpose, he advanced with a numerous 
army towards the Euphrates. As he was marching through 
Palestine, King Josias, fearing the evil consequences that might 
result for his country from the presence of so many troops, and 
wishing to check them, attacked the Egyptians near Mageddo, 
but was conquered, and unfortunately received a wound, of 
which he died after his return to Jerusalem. This was the last 
worthy successor of David on the throne of Juda. His three 
sons, Joachaz, Joachim and Sedecias, who reigned after him, 
instead of imitating the great examples of virtue and piety so 
conspicuous in their father, fell together with their subjects into 
so many disorders and crimes, that the justice of Grod was at 
length provoked to punish their ingratitude by the Babylonian 
captivity. 

As to Nechao, encouraged by his victory over Josias, he pur- 
sued his march towards the Euphrates, defeated the Babylonians 
and took Charcamis, a considerable city. He used such mea- 
sures to secure its possession as his circumstances permitted, 
and withdrew, after leaving in it a strong garrison. Passing 
again through Palestine, and indignant that the Jews had, 
without his consent, chosen for their sovereign Joachaz, the 
younger son of the late king, he sent that prince captive into 
Egypt, and appointed in his place Joachim, another son of Jo- 
sias. After so many great achievements, Nechao triumphantly 
re-entered his kingdom. 

In the meanwhile, Nabopolassar, king of Babylon, was very 
much grieved not only by the loss of Charcamis, but also by the 
coincident secession of Syria and Palestine. Unable, on account 
of his infirmities and advanced age, to retrieve in person the 
glory of his arms, he associated to himself his son Nabuchodo- 
nosor as a colleague in the empire. This young prince fully 
answered his father's expectations. He put himself at the head 
of the Babylonian troops, defeated those of Nechao, retook Char- 
camis, and everywhere, from the banks of the Euphrates to the 
borders of Egypt, re-established the ascendency of his country. 



96 ANCIENT HISTORY. Pakt III. 

Jerusalem itself fell into.. his power. A large number of Jews, 
several of whom belonged to the royal family, were sent to 
Babylon as prisoners, or as hostages for the fidelity of the rest 
of their nation (b. c. 606). Thus commenced the famous Baby- 
lonian captivity, so often predicted and pathetically described by 
the prophets Isaias, Jeremias, etc. 

Nabopolassar died about this time, probably before his son 
had left Judea; Nabuchodonosor was no sooner apprised of this 
event, than "he set out in great haste for Babylon, leaving behind 
him the main body of the army, with the boo4i T and captives. 
When he arrived in that city, he assumed the reins of govern- 
ment, and succeeded to all the dominions of his father, com- 
prising Assyria, Chaldea, Syria, and some other countries, to 
which he subsequently added many new conquests. 

NABUCHODONOSOR II, OR THE GREAT.— b. c. G05— 562. 

The Jews had been humbled, but not entirely subdued by 
their defeats and losses, and not even by the capture of Jerusa- 
lem; they continued to provoke the justice of God by their 
crimes, and the fury of Nabuchodonosor by their frequent rebel- 
lions. This monarch, exasperated at so many revolts, arrived 
at the head of a fresh arnry, for no other apparent object than to 
vindicate his claims by acts of the utmost rigor, but in reality as 
the instrument of divine vengeance against a wicked and most 
ungrateful people. 

All opposition was crushed by the vigor of his measures and 
the efforts of his arms. The Jewish capital, which the Egyptians 
vainly endeavored to assist, was taken after a siege of two years. 
Sedecias, the last king of Juda, beheld his children slaughtered 
by his side; he himself, having his eyes torn out, was with the 
rest of the inhabitants led into captivity. All the sacred vessels 
and royal treasure fell into the hands of the Babylonians. The 
city was entirely demolished, , and its magnificent temple con- 
signed to the flames (b. c. 588). 

Nabuchodonosor, upon his t return to Babylon, erected a golden 
statue of sixty cubits or about a hundred feet in height, with an 
order to all his subjects to adore it, under penalty of death. 
Three noble young men among the Jews, viz. : Ananias, Misael 
and Azarias, courageously refused to obey the impious command 
of the king. They were, for this imaginary crime, thrown into 
a burning furnace; but the Almighty, whose service they had 
preferred to every human consideration, prevented them from 
being at all injured by the fire. The monarch ; astounded at this 



b. c. G26— 562. KINGS OF BABYLON. 97 

prodigy which he himself witnessed, forbade, under the severest 
penalties, all blasphemy against the God of Israel, and raised 
the three young men to high dignities in the empire. Not less 
astonished at the eminent gift of prophecy imparted to Daniel, 
another distinguished Hebrew captive, he promoted him to a 
still higher rank, appointed him governor of the whole province 
of Babylon, and chose him for one of his chief counsellors.* 

A new war called Nabuchodonosor to new exploits and con- 
quests. He took the celebrated city of Tyre, which had never 
been subdued by any foreign power; but the siege cost his troops 
incredible fatigues, for which they received no compensation in 
the riches or spoils found in the town, the Tynans having previ- 
ously retired with their treasures to a neighboring island. Here 
they built, at a very short distance from the continent, the new 
city of Tyre, that was destined even to surpass the former in 
celebrity. The conqueror, unwilling or unable to pursue them 
in this retreat, led his soldiers into Egypt, where they captured 
an immense booty, and made so many ravages that this unfortu- 
nate kingdom, formerly so nourishing but now distracted by civil 
feuds and weakened by foreign wars, could not recover any sort 
of prosperity till after the lapse of forty years, under the reign 
of Amasis. 

When Nabuchodonosor had brought this long series of expedi- 
tions to a successful issue, he returned to Babylon and devoted 
his chief attention to the embellishment of that capital, so as to 
render it beyond comparison the most magnificent city in the 
world. He now seemed to have reached the zenith of temporal 
glory and happiness. But God, who had decreed to humble his 
pride and practically teach him the vanity of all human gran- 
deur, foretold by the mouth of Daniel that this mighty king 
would be reduced for seven years to a state of insanity, driven 
from the company of men, and obliged to live like the beasts of 
the field. The event verified the prediction. "At the end of 
twelve months/' says the sacred writer (Daniel iv, 26, 30); "the 
word was fulfilled upon Nabuchodonosor : and he was driven 
away from among men, and did eat grass like an ox : and his 
body was wet with the dew of heaven ; till his hairs grew like 
the feathers of eagles, and his nails like birds' claws/'f 

• For these and other facts belonging to the reign of Nabuchodono- 
sor, see the last chapters of King? and Paial. ; Ezechiel xxix ; Daniel 
i — \v, etc. 

f What happened to King Nabuchodonosor, was, according to the 
common opinion of interpreters, an eft'cct of that strange disease, 
called Lycanthropy, Cynanthropy, or the like, in which one, imagining 

9 



98 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part IIL 

"When the time previously appointed for the duration of his 
punishment had elapsed, the king recovered his senses, humbly 
acknowledged the sovereign dominion and justice of G-od, and 
being re-established on his throne, published a solemn edict to 
the praise and glory of Him who is supreme Master of kings as 
well as subjects. 

Nabuchodonosor died one year after his happy restoration (b. 
c. 562). He had, since the death of his father Nabopolassar, 
reigned during forty -three years, and he is justly considered as 
having been one of the greatest monarchs of the East. 

DECLINE OF THE BABYLONIAN EMPIRE. 

During the reign of Nabuchodonosor we behold Babylon in 
all her splendor; from his death we may date the commence- 
ment of her decline. The throne was occupied, after him, by a 
series of princes who rapidly succeeded each other, performing 
no achievement worthy of their illustrious predecessor. Most 
of them, on the contrary, undermined their own power, and 
brought contempt on themselves by their indolence and profligacy. 

On the other hand, we learn from the prophets* that the 
Babylonians, after having been an instrument in the hands of 
God to chastise the ingratitude and infidelities of his people, 
were themselves to be severely punished for their cruelty, their 
pride and their domineering spirit. 

The storm was already gathering over them from every quar- 
ter. They endeavoured, but in vain, to avert it, by entering 
into a close alliance with the mightiest nations of the west against 
those of the north and east, by whom they were threatened ; the 
very measure which they adopted to support their tottering mon- 
archy, served only to accelerate its downfall.")" 

himself to Lave become a wolf, a dog, or any other animal, feels, moves 
and acts in conformity with this morbid affection. — See D. Calmet, 
Dictionnaire de la Bible, article Nabuchodonosor; Duclot, LaSainte Bible 
vengee des attaques de Vincredulite, Note 4eme sur Daniel, etc. But if the 
disease which afflicted the Assyrian monarch was of itself a natural 
one, the time, the manner, the circumstances, and especially the clear 
prediction of it, certainly belonged to a higher order of Providence. 

* Isa. xiii, xiv, xlvii ; Jerem. xxv, 1, li. 

f See § 1 of the Appendix. 






B. c. 5G2— 548. CRCESUS AND THE LYDIANS. 99 



CROESUS.— THE LYDIANS. 

The most illustrious and powerful of their allies was Croesus, 
king of Lydia, a province of that part of the Asiatic continent 
called Asia Minor. This kingdom, at first very inconsiderable, 
gradually increased in extent and power by the prudence or bra- 
very of its sovereigns, till it reached, under Croesus (b. c. 562 — 
548), the height of prosperity. The riches of this monarch, 
obtained by conquest and produced by his gold mines, were so 
great that they became proverbial. The possessor of that im- 
mense fortune was not on this account the less brave and enter- 
prising ; his life was little else than a continual warfare, and he 
was the first who succeeded in subduing the Grecian cities of Asia 
Minor, having conquered nearly the whole extent of that famous 
peninsula. 

What is still more surprising, is that a prince possessed of 
such warlike dispositions and such enormous wealth, found his 
chief delight in literature and science. His court was the usual 
residence or resort of the learned men of his age, such as JEsop, 
the fabulist, Anacharsis the Scythian, Solon, the celebrated 
' Athenian legislator, etc. 

A succession of domestic afflictions for a time depressed the 
spirit of Croesus. He was roused from his lethargy by the in- 
creasing fame of Cyrus, the Persian conqueror. The Lydian 
monarch began to fear for his own dominions ; still, as he was 
a religious prince after the manner of the Gentiles, he would 
not declare war, nor engage in any enterprise, without having 
previously consulted his gods. He therefore sent ambassadors, 
with magnificent presents, to consult the famous oracle of Apollo 
at Delphi, whether it would be expedient for him to undertake a 
war against the Persians. The answer was, that if the king of 
Lydia crossed the river Halys at the head of his army, he should 
overthrow a great empire. Croesus, interpreting this ambiguous 
answer in his favor, determined without further hesitation to 
come to open hostilities j and, in order to comply with another 
direction of the oracle, he strengthened his party not only by 
concluding a friendly alliance with the Babylonians and Egyp- 
tians, but also by calling to his assistance the Lacedaemonians, 
at that time the most powerful people of Greece. 

This important step of the king was not equally approved of 
by all his subjects. A certain Lydian, highly esteemed for his 
prudence, addressed him thus on that occasion : " What prompts 
you, great prince, to turn your arms against the Persians, a war- 



100 ANCIENT HISTORY, Part III. 

like people, who, inhabiting a rugged country, are inured from 
their childhood to fatigue and to every sort of hardship ; who, 
accustomed to a coarse dress and the plainest food, are satisfied 
with bread and water, and are total strangers to the delicacies 
and conveniences of life ; who, in a word, have nothing to lose 
if you conquer them, but every thing to gain if they conquer 
you • and whom it will be difficult to remove from our frontiers, 
if they once happen to know from experience the great advan- 
tages of our climate and country ? Far then from attacking them, 
we ought, I think, to thank the gods that they have prevented the 
Persians from attacking us." (Herod, b. i. ch. 71). 

The remark was certainly judicious; but Croesus had taken 
his resolution, and was not to be diverted from it by any consid- 
eration or advice. 



CYRUS.— THE PERSIANS. 

The Persians, who were commencing to act a conspicuous part 
in the world, had subsisted a long series of ages without being a 
numerous and powerful nation. They at first possessed and in- 
habited only one province of that extensive country which after- 
wards received and still retains the name of Persia; and they 
could number no more than one hundred and twenty thousand 
men. Being successively under the sway of the Assyrians, the 
Babylonians and the Medes, they practised in obscurity those 
manly virtues of sobriety, patience and fortitude, which prepare 
a people for grand and successful exertions. It only required a 
more extensive theatre to make them appear to the greatest ad- 
vantage. This began to open before them when their king or 
chief, Cambyses, married Mandana, the daughter of the Median 
monarch Astyages, and by her had a son called Cyrus, the same 
whom Isaias had long before expressly mentioned as destined by 
Divine Providence to be the conqueror of the Babylonian and 
the founder of the Persian empire. 

This prince, one of the most accomplished heroes of profane 
antiquity, was born in the year b. c. 599. From his infancy he 
manifested the happiest disposition. He was full of meekness 
and affability as well as energy and courage, never permitting 
himself to be shaken in his resolution by any hardship nor 
frightened by any danger, when honor and duty were at stake. 
He was educated with other boys of his age, according to the 
Persian laws, then highly esteemed and well calculated to im- 
prove both mental and bodily faculties. 



b. c. 5C0— 549. FIRST CAMPAIGNS OF CYRUS. 101 

Throughout the whole course of study and exercise to which 
young Cyrus was subjected, he, easily surpassed his companions 
by his talents, dexterity, obedience and wisdom. What did him 
still greater honor was, that instead of provoking jealousy or 
discontent, he, on the contrary, by his virtuous conduct and oblig- 
ing manners, gained the respect and affection of every one. He 
did the same at the court of his grandfather Astyages (the son 
and successor of Cyaxares I), where he resided for five years ; 
and, even at the early age of sixteen, he contributed more than 
any one by his activity and valor, to a victory which the Mcdes 
obtained over the Babylonians. On his return to Persia, he 
willingly resumed his former exercises, till his education was 
completed by his father Cambyses, whose intimate acquaintance 
with the principles of war and of government, enabled him to 
cultivate the talents of Cyrus with complete success. 

FIRST CAMPAIGNS OF CYRUS AT THE HEAD OF THE PER- 
SIANS AND MEDES.— b. c. 5G0— 549. 

Astyages after a reign of thirty-five years, was succeeded on 
the throne of Media by Cyaxares II, his son, the brother of 
Mandana and uncle of Cyrus. At this juncture Neriglissor, 
king of Babylon, formed with Croesus, king of Lydia, a power- 
ful confederacy against the Medes; he had sent ambassadors 
even to the Indians for the purpose of rendering that nation 
favorable to his cause. C3 7 axares, on his side, was not slow in 
making due preparations for the approaching conflict. His first 
care was to ask the help of the Persians, and to beg that his 
nephew should be the leader of the troops who might be sent to 
his assistance. Both requests were granted : an army of thirty 
thousand chosen men was speedily assembled, and Cambyses 
willingly placed it under the command of Cyrus, who set out at 
their head to join his allies in Media. 

On his arrival, it was found, upon accurate information, that 
the combined army of the two nations was not half that of the 
Babylonians and Lydians, whose number amounted to sixty 
thousand cavalry and two hundred thousand infantry. The dis- 
covery of so great a disparity filled the Median king with con- 
siderable uneasiness ', but the genius of Cyrus, his courage and 
resolution, soon made up for this inequality of forces, in the 
first place, by a short campaign which preceded the grand 
expedition, he secured the valuable assistance of the Armenians 
and of some other nations in the neighborhood. He then intro- 
duced useful changes in the military tactics of the time, and 

9* 



102 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part III 

particularly applied himself to excite great emulation and cour- 
age among the troops. His efforts were the more successful, as 
he set an example of perfect compliance with his duties, and did 
not seek to distinguish himself by the luxury of his table, the 
magnificence of his dress or the splendor of his retinue, but by 
his kindness, liberality and incessant care to reward good actions. 
When Cyrus was assured of the devotedness and bravery of 
his troops, he proposed to lead them into the enemy's country : 
all readily assented to the proposal, and followed him with full 
confidence of victory. It required several days to reach the 
Assyrians. At last he met them, at a great distance from the 
Median frontier, encamped in an open plain and protected by a 
large ditch, under the command of the two allied kings, Nerig- 
lissor and Croesus. After some hesitation they came out of their 
intrenchments in order of battle, and soon commenced an attack 
by the discharge of their arrows ; but the Persians, animated by 
the presence and example of Cyrus, immediately rushed on their 
opponents and charged them with irresistible fury. The Assy- 
rians, unable to stand so terrible a shock, fled in confusion, in 
spite of the efforts of their leaders to encourage and rally them. 
The Median cavalry pursued the fugitives with such vigor, that 
a great number of them perished ; King Neriglissor himself fell 
among the slain, and Croesus, seeing or believing that all was 
lost, made his escape by a precipitate retreat. The defeat of the 
Assyrians was complete. A new and bold attack rendered Cyrus 
master of their camp, and his troops found in it an immense 
quantity of spoils, which he caused to be so judiciously distributed 
that all remained satisfied. 

But the most important result of this great victory for the 
conqueror was the surrender of several fortresses, and the gain- 
ing over to his party of some among the most influential and 
powerful of the Babylonian lords. Moreover his kind treatment 
of his prisoners of war, whom he set at liberty on the simple 
condition that they should never more bear arms against him, 
spread in every direction the fame of his clemency. Numbers 
of people readily submitted to him, and became useful auxiliaries. 
The Assyrians, having a second time presumed to attack him, 
were again defeated with great slaughter. _ 

This new advantage enabled Cyrus to penetrate still farther 
into the enemy's country j and although he did not yet think it 
prudent to besiege their capital, he took at least all the measures 
and information that might afterwards be serviceable for the 
success of this great undertaking. To provide for the security 
of his new allies during his absence, he concluded with the 



b. c. 543. BATTLE OF THYBARRA. 103 

Babylonian king, now Baltassar or Nabonides, a kind of truce, 
by which it was agreed that the husbandmen on both sides 
should not be molested, but have full liberty to cultivate their 
lands and reap the fruit of their labors. Having in this man- 
ner obtained a solid footing in a vast extent of country, having 
also examined the situation of Babylon, acquired a considerable 
number of friends and greatly increased his army, he returned 
to Media. 

When he approached the frontier, he sent a messenger to inform 
Cyaxares of his arrival. This prince, somewhat jealous of the 
glory of his nephew, and imagining that he might be guilty of 
ambitious designs, received him in a very cold manner, so far as 
to turn away his face from him, and even weep through "vexation. 
Cyrus, whose prudence and modesty were equal to his valor, en- 
tered into a private conversation with his uncle. He spoke to 
him with so much mildness, submission and reason j he gave 
him such strong proofs of* respect, fidelity and attachment to his 
person and interest, that he soon dispelled all his suspicions, and 
completely recovered his favor. 

Cyaxares, being now perfectly satisfied, nay more and more 
charmed with the great qualities of Cyrus, offered him his only 
daughter in marriage, with Media for her future dowry ; for he 
had neither son nor brother to succeed him on the throne. Cyrus 
felt highly flattered by so advantageous a proposal; yet he would 
not accept it, till he had obtained the consent of his father and 
mother, leaving in this conduct an admirable example to all 
future ages, of the respectful deference which children, whatever 
may be their age, their qualifications or their standing in the 
world, should pay to their parents on the like occasions. Cyrus 
did not marry the princess till his return to the court of Cyax- 
ares, after a visit to his family in Persia. This marriage was 
for him the most advantageous he could desire, since it rendered 
him, by his wife, the heir of the powerful monarchy of the 
Medes, being already, by his father, the heir of the Persian 
kingdom. 

DECISIVE BATTLE OF THYMBRA OR THYBARRA BETWEEN 
CYRUS AND CRCESUS.— b. c. 548. 

In the mean time, the two hostile parties were making stu- 
pendous preparations to carry on the war upon a still greater 
scale than before. During this period, Croesus was the comman- 
der-in-chief of all the enemy's forces ; he assembled them about 
the river Pactolus, whence he advanced towards Thybarra or 



104 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part III. 

Thymbra, a city of his kingdom not far from Sardis the capital. 
Here he was met by the Persians under Cyrus, who had hastened 
from Media with a view to surprise his foe by the rapidity of his 
march, and disconcert him by the boldness of his attempt. 

Both armies were formidable by their number, discipline and 
valor. It is however generally admitted that the army of the 
Lydians and their allies was more than double that of the Persians 
and Medes, as the former amounted to four hundred and twenty 
thousand men, sixty thousand of whom were cavalry ; whereas 
the latter consisted of no more than thirty-six thousand horse, 
with one hundred and sixty thousand foot, in all one hundred 
and ninety-six thousand combatants.* 

So many troops drawn up in battle-array, with their glittering 
cuirasses, bucklers, helmets, axes or swords, presented a spectacle 
at once magnificent and terrible. The forces of Crcesus, having . 
their infantry in the centre and the cavalry on the two wings, 
formed a line of nearly five miles. The army of Cyrus, arranged 
in nearly the same order though with fewer men in depth, occu- 
pied only four miles, and consequently was, at each extremity of 
the line, about half a mile short of the enemy's front. But 
Cyrus, perfectly aware of the circumstance, had taken such pre- 
cautions and so well disposed his plan of attack, that he con- 
fidently stated in presence of his officers that these two extremi- 
ties would be the very spots in which victory would begin to 
declare in his favor. The result was precisely as he had pre- 
dicted. 

The plan of Croesus, upon which he principally rested his 
hope of success, was to surround the army of Cyrus, and attack 
it simultaneously in front and on the flanks. For this purpose, 
he ordered the two wings of his own army to advance with 
greater rapidity than the centre, so as to enclose the Persians at 
each extremity of their line. This movement did not in the 
least alarm Cyrus, who had expected it. He rode through all 
the ranks, giving his orders and encouraging his troops ) and he, 
who on all other occasions was so modest, so free from every 
appearance of ostentation, now appeared full of confidence, and 
spoke as if certain of victory. 

At the first signal, the Persians faced their foes on every side. 
Cyrus himself, wheeling round at the head of a choice body of 
horse backed by a band of infantry, rushed against the flank of 

* That this was the probable amount of troops on each side, may be 
deduced from a comparison of various passages of Xcnophon. See, for 
this and other circumstances and particulars of the battle, the Cyro 
pedia, end of the Gth and beginning of the 7th book. 






b. c. 548. BATTLE OF THYBARRA. 105 

the enemy's left wing, and thus turning their very design against 
themselves, threw them into great disorder. Immediately the 
chariots armed with scythes, being driven furiously among them, 
completed their defeat. The same was done against the right 
flank of the Lydians, and with equal success ; so that the two 
wings of their army were, in a short time, completely routed. 

Their centre offered a much greater and more protracted resist- 
ance. It was chiefly composed of one hundred and twenty 
thousand Egyptians, fighting in twelve square battalions, of ten 
thousand men each. Here the conflict was so furious, that it 
cost the lives of many among the bravest warriors of each army; 
nay, the Persian infantry were compelled to give way, and grad- 
ually to retreat towards their engines. However, the combat 
was soon renewed, and became more fierce and bloody than 
ever. Cyrus, who had hastened to the assistance of his infantry, 
attacked the enemy on their rear; the other bodies of the 
Persian horse came up about the same time, and the Egyptians 
were now closely pressed on every side. They still resisted, and 
notwithstanding the dreadful losses which they had sustained, 
defended themselves with heroic bravery. Cyrus himself was in 
great danger ; his horse being killed under him, he fell in the 
midst of his enemies, and must have either been slain or taken 
prisoner, had he not been quickly rescued by the devoted intre- 
pidity of his troops. 

He could not but admire the persevering valor of the Egyp- 
tians. Desirous that such brave men should not perish, he 
offered them honorable conditions, if they would surrender. 
They did so; but, as their fidelity was equal to their courage, 
they previously stipulated that they should not be obliged to 
bear arms against Croesus, in whose behalf their services had 
been once enlisted. They ever after remained faithful to the 
Persian monarch. Cyrus, on his part, besides the valuable ac- 
quisition which he then made, enjoyed the merit of having added 
generosity to the other superior qualities that he evinced both be- 
fore and during the battle. 

The engagement had lasted till the evening. The field at 
length was entirely won, and the remaining allies of the Lydians 
retired in all directions, endeavoring to reach their own country 
as quickly as possible. Croesus with his troops retired to Sardis, 
whither, on the following day, he was pursued by the conqueror. 
Cyrus immediately ordered military engines to be raised against 
the walls, and scaling-ladders to be prepared, as if he intended 
to make an assault ; but, whilst he engaged the attention of the 
besieged with these preparations, the next night he introduced 



106 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part III. 

his soldiers into the citadel through a secret passage -with which 
he had been made acquainted by a Persian slave. At break of 
day, he entered the city without resistance. 

Thus did prudence, united with activity and courage, render 
Cyrus master of this important place, without effusion of blood ; 
even Croesus hesitated no longer to surrender himself, with all 
his treasures, into the hands of so great a conqueror. Cyrus, 
moved to compassion at the misfortune of a king who had in a 
moment fallen from so great an elevation, treated him with be- 
coming generosity and kindness. He suffered him to enjoy, not 
only the title, but even, according to many, the authority of a 
sovereign, under the mere restriction of not having the power to 
make war; thus relieving him, as Croesus himself acknowledged, 
from the most burdensome duty of royalty, and enabling him to 
live much more happily, exempt from painful cares, and less ex- 
posed to the vicissitudes and reverses of fortune. 

Herodotus and several after him have filled, the history of 
Croesus with a variety of extraordinary incidents, either almost 
destitute of credibility, or scarcely reconcilable with the usual 
moderation of Cyrus; the circumstance, for instance, of Croesus' 
only son, who was dumb, but who, by a violent effort loosed the 
strings of his tongue, and forced himself to speak in order to pre- 
vent his father from being killed by a soldier. We may mention 
also the report, that the vanquished monarch was first placed on 
a pile of wood to be burned alive, and was already on the point 
of being consumed by the flames, when the loud repetition of the 
name of Solon, with whom he had formerly conversed on human 
happiness, moved his conqueror to pity and rescued him from 
danger.* Incidents like these savor too much of fiction. The 
narrative of Xenophon, which we have adopted, is much more 
natural, more consistent, and consequently more deserving of 
credit. 

Cyrus henceforward took Croesus with him in all his expedi- 
tions, either through esteem for his person and a desire to profit 
by his counsels, or perhaps through motives of prudence and 
policy, and in order to guard against future contingencies. 

We have already mentioned, that Croesus was induced to en- 
gage in a war against the Persians by an ambiguous answer of 
the oracle of Delphi. After his defeat, he sent a messenger to 
reproach the oracle for having deceived him. The pretended 
god justified his answers by saying that, when he foretold the 
destruction of a great monarchy, he meant the overthrow, not 

* Herod, b. i, cli. 85—87. 






B . c. 036. FALL OF BABYLON. 107 

of the Persian, but of the Lydian empire ! It was by predictions 
of this kind, that the evil spirit, the real author of these deceit- 
ful oracles, imposed on his deluded votaries, by concealing his 
meaning under such ambiguous expressions ; that, whatever the 
event, the prediction might be verified. 

NEW CONQUESTS OF CYRUS.— FALL OF BABYLON.— FOUNDA- 
TION OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE.— b. c. 547—536. 

The victory of Cyrus over Croesus, and its immediate conse- 
quences, had given to the former of these monarchs a decided 
superiority over all his enemies. Lesser Asia, nay rather the 
whole continent between the JEgean sea and the river Euphrates, 
was obliged to acknowledge his laws. Conquest followed con- 
quest. Phenicia, Syria, Palestine and a portion of Arabia were 
subdued; Egypt shared the same fate, or was at least rendered 
tributary. The Babylonian empire crumbled on all sides ; there 
remained only its proud capital, which still defied the power of 
Cyrus; but this conqueror had now deprived its inhabitants of 
almost all foreign assistance. Having therefore completed his 
measures, he re-entered Assyria, and driving before him the hos- 
tile parties that presumed to oppose his march, at last laid siege 
to Babylon. 

This was the most arduous task that he had ever undertaken. 
The height of the walls, the strength of the fortifications, and a 
supply of provisions sufficient to support the garrison and inhabi- 
tants for twenty years, seemed to render the place impregnable. 
So many obstacles did not discourage Cyrus, nor deter him from 
his design. Judging it however impossible to carry the city by 
storm, he ordered a line of circumvallation to be drawn, and a 
deep and wide ditch to be dug about it, apparently with the hope 
of reducing the Babylonians by famine; and to avoid excessive 
fatigue among his soldiers, he divided the whole army into twelve 
bodies, and assigned to each its month to guard the trenches. 
The besieged, who thought themselves perfectly secure a 
every danger whether of assault or famine, insulted Cyrus from 
the top of their walls, and laughed at his various exertions as 
waste of time and unprofitable labor. 

The siege continued in this manner for two years, at the end 
of which it was or seemed to be no more advanced than on the 
first day. But just at this time Cyrus was informed that the 
Babylonians were preparing for a great feast, and that they would 
celebrate it by spending the whole night in revelling and de- 
bauchery. He seized upon this favorable opportunity to execute 



108 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part III. 

the bold scheme he had formed. Having posted two bodies of 
his troops in the two places in which the Euphrates entered and 
left the city, he commanded them to penetrate into Babylon by 
marching in the channel of the river as soon as they found it 
fordable. In the evening he caused the canals to be opened that 
led to the vast ditches which had lately been dug, to make the 
Waters flow into them, or as Herodotus says, into the great lake 
situated at some distance in the country; by this means, the 
channel of the Euphrates was in a short time sufficiently emptied 
to afford an easy passage. The two bodies of troops just men- 
tioned entered it about midnight, under the command of two 
Assyrian lords who had long since become the faithful allies of 
Cyrus. They advanced towards each other without meeting any 
obstacle. 

Through surprising negligence or rather providential forget- 
fulness on the part of the Babylonians, they had left open the 
brazen gates of the wall built within the city along each side of 
the river. These gates, had they been shut, would have sufficed 
to defeat the whole enterprise of the besiegers; but the inhabi- 
tants were blinded by their pride, and, notwithstanding the 
proximity of the danger, perceived not the precipice yawning 
beneath their feet. The Persians therefore easily penetrated into 
the very heart of Babylon. Having in consequence of .their 
previous agreement met near the palace, they surprised the 
guards and cut them to pieces; then rushing through the doors, 
they quickly took possession of the whole palace and put King 
Baltassar and all his attendants to the sword. With this prince 
fell the Babylonian or second Assyrian empire, after it had lasted 
two hundred and ten years from Nabonassar, and eighty-eight 
years after it had been transferred from Ninive to Babylon. On 
the following day, the citadel surrendered without resistance, and 
Cyrus saw himself the undisputed master of the strongest and 
most powerful place in the world (b. c. 588). 

This momentous event, with all its leading circumstances, had 
been clearly foretold by the Hebrew prophets. Nearly two hun- 
dred years before it happened, Isaias had declared it in these 
words: a The burden of Babylon, which Isaias the son of Amos 
saw. Upon the dark mountain lift ye up a banner, exalt the 

voice, lift up the hand, and let the rulers go into the gates 

Behold I will stir up the Medes against them (the inhabitants of 
Babylon). . . . Thus saith the Lord to my anointed Cyrus, whose 
right hand I have taken hold of, to subdue nations before his 
face, and to turn the backs of kings, and to open the doors before 
him; and the gates shall not be shut. I will go before thee, and 



b. c. 536. FALL OF BABYLON. 109 

will humble the great ones of the earth : I will break in pieces 
the gates of brass, and will burst the bars of iron. And I will 
give thee hidden treasures, and the concealed riches of secret 
places, that thou mayest know that I am the Lord who call thee 
by thy name, the God of Israel."* 

The prophet Jcremias had also expressly foretold the ruin of 
the Babylonian city and people. "j" But the most solemn and 
impressive warning of God's justice against Babylon was given 
in that city itself. 

In the very night which beheld its downfall, whilst King 
Baltassar was feasting with his nobles and profaning the sacred 
vessels of the temple of Jerusalem, " there appeared fingers, as it 
were of the hand of a man, writing over against the candlestick 
upon the surface of the wall of the king's palace." The words 
written by this miraculous hand were : Mane, which means 
number; Thecel, weight; Phares, division; to signify, as 
Daniel interpreted them by the light of heavenly inspiration, 
that the Babylonian monarchy was at an end, having now com- 
pleted the number of her days, being iveighed in the scale of 
divine justice, and divided among or given over to the Medes 
and Persians. "The same night, Baltassar the Chaldean king 
was slain ; and Darius, the Mede" (the same as Cyaxares II), 
"succeeded to the kingdom. "J 

As to the subsequent fate of Babylon, it had been thus fore- 
told by Isaias: "That Babylon, famous among kingdoms, the 
famous pride of the Chaldeans, shall be even as the Lord 
destroyed Sodom and Gomorrha. It shall no more be inhabited 
for ever, and it shall not be founded unto generation and genera- 
tion : neither shall the Arabian pitch his tent there, nor shall 
shepherds rest there. But wild beasts shall rest there, and their 

houses shall be filled with serpents And I will make it a 

possession for the ericius and pools of waters, and I will sweep it 
and wear it out with a besom, saith the Lord of hosts. The Lord of 
hosts hath sworn, saying : Surely as I have thought, so shall it 
be; and as I have purposed, so shall it fall out."§ 

This astonishing prediction was literally, though gradually 
fulfilled. Babylon, much neglected by its new sovereigns, who 
preferred other cities for their residence, became, after the lapse 
of some ages, entirely deserted. Its walls, houses and public 
buildings falling to decay, whilst no one took care to repair 
them, were by degrees reduced to a heap of ruins, and finally 

* Isa. xiii, 1, 2, 17 ; and xlv, 1 — 3. f Jerera. xxv, 1, li. 

| See the whole narrative in Daniel, v. 
I Isa. xiii, 19—21 ; and xiv, 23—25. 
10 



110 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part III. 

changed into a wild solitude, the receptacle of noxious beasts, 
owls and reptiles. So it has continued to the present clay. Rub- 
bish and nitre cover the spot formerly occupied by its amazing 
towers and palaces; the ground, everywhere intersected with 
marshes, barren and dreary, presents nothing to the eye of the 
traveller but scenes of death and desolation. The just chastise- 
ment of God visited this impious and proud city, and it disap- 
peared from the earth. 

Cyrus had achieved, by the reduction of Babylon, the grand 
object of all his enterprises, and brought a formidable conflict of 
twenty-one years to a most prosperous issue. As his modesty 
was equal to his abilities, he left the principal share of power to 
his uncle Cyaxares, king of Media. They divided the vast 
empire just conquered by their united armies into one hundred 
and twenty provinces, and intrusted the government of them to 
those who had most distinguished themselves by their services 
during the war. Appropriate rewards and honors were likewise 
bestowed on the whole army. After these important regula- 
tions, C} 7 rus made a general review of his forces: they were 
found to consist of two thousand chariots armed with scythes, 
one hundred and twenty thousand horse, and six hundred thou- 
sand infantry. "When he had supplied the cities or castles with 
garrisons, and the various parts of the empire with a sufficient 
number of soldiers for their defence, he marched with the re- 
mainder into Syria, where he regulated the affairs of that pro- 
vince, and afterwards subdued many other nations, pursuing his 
victorious career even as far as Ethiopia. But the particulars 
of these expeditions are unknown. 

Cyaxares II died two years after the overthrow of the Baby- 
lonian monarchy, and Cambyses, king of Persia, also died about 
the same time. Cyrus, having returned to Babylon, took the 
reins of government into his own hands. Being the successor 
of both these princes and the conqueror of so many countries, 
his accession to the throne (b. c. 536) was the real epoch of the 
foundation of a new empire, more extensive than any that had 
hitherto existed. 



RELIGION, GOVERNMENT, ETC. HI 



RELIGION, GOVERNMENT, LAWS AND MANNERS OF THE 
ANCIENT PERSIANS.— CAUSES OF THEIR RAPID PROGRESS, 
AND OF THEIR SUBSEQUENT DECLINE. 

1. Religion. — The religion of the ancient Persians was idolatry, 
not, it is true, under so gross a form as that of most other na- 
tions of antiquity, but still real heathenism. The usual objects 
of their worship were the sun, and, as a natural consequence, fire. 

They had no temples, and rather seemed to hold them in 
detestation, as they consigned to the flames all the temples 
which they found in Greece, during their expedition in that 
country under Xerxes. Cicero relates (lib. 2, De Leg.) that this 
work of destruction was attributed to the advice of the Magi, or 
Persian philosophers, whose sect had been founded or re-or- 
ganized by Zoroaster, a famous legislator of Persia. This country 
also, more than any other, admitted the false doctrine of two creators 
and principles, the one good, the other evil, a doctrine which 
became, at a later period, the capital dogma of the Manichean 
heresy. 

2. Government. — The government among the Persians, as 
among the other oriental nations, was an absolute and hereditary 
monarchy. Yet, the authority of the Persian kings, from the 
time of Darius Hystaspes, was kept within certain bounds by a 
state-council of seven members, who were still more commendable 
for their wisdom and abilities than for their high birth and social 
elevation. The provinces were placed under the immediate con- 
trol, not of viceroys, who at a great distance from the court might 
have too easily abused their power, but of governors of an infe- 
rior rank called Satraps. Their number was from one hundred 
and twenty to one hundred and twenty-seven, according to cir- 
cumstances which may have occurred in thedivision of the empire; 
it was afterwards reduced to twenty. These satraps were obliged 
to give an account of their administration and conduct to three 
general superintendents, who themselves had to make their report 
to the sovereign. The prophet Daniel, being no less esteemed 
by Cyaxares and Cyrus than he had been by Nabuchodonosor, 
was appointed by them to be one of the three superintendents, 
and even, it appears, the first of the three, and the highest of all 
in the royal confidence. 

3. Laics. — The Persians had excellent laws to secure an exact 
distribution of justice. It was frequently administered by the 
king himself. Ordinary cases were tried before judges, whom 
the law appointed to that important office only when they had 



112 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part III. 

attained great maturity of judgment, and at least fifty years of 
age. One of their essential rules was, never to condemn any 
one until he should have a fair opportunity and sufficient time 
to answer, if he could, all the charges brought against him j and 
then, if the accused person was found innocent, the penalties 
which he himself would have suffered, if he had been convicted, 
were inflicted on his accuser. The government, as may be 
gathered from certain facts, watched with great care over the 
integrity and disinterestedness of the judges. One of them 
having permitted himself to be bribed, was condemned to death 
by the king, and his skin was fastened to the chair in which his 
son and successor in office had to sit, to remind him continually 
of his duty. 

4. Manners and Customs. — One of the most striking features 
in the customs of the ancient Persians was the manner in which 
they conducted the education of their children. They did not, 
says Xenophon (Cyrop. b. i, c. 2), as many other people do, wait 
till their sons had reached an advanced age, to deter them from 
vice and teach them the practice of virtue : young boys were 
placed, from the beginning, under the care of experienced, vir- 
tuous, and vigilant masters, equally capable of instructing them 
by word and example. They were subjected to a rule which 
settled every thing that they had to do, the duration of their 
exercises, the time of their meals, the quality of their food and 
drink, etc. To accustom them early to sobriety and temperance, 
their food was bread and cresses, their beverage water ,* this plain 
diet, excluding spices and dainties, strengthened their bodies, and 
contributed to give them a vigorous constitution, well calculated 
to bear afterwards the severest labor and fatigue. As to their 
moral education, they were particularly trained to the duties of 
justice, frugality, and thankfulness for benefits received , and, 
as a matter of course, they learned to detest intemperance, in- 
gratitude, and lying, as degrading vices. Such were the Per- 
sians, until the full establishment of their empire. 

5. Progress. — What has already been said may partly explain 
their rapid progress, victories and conquests under Cyrus. Being 
a sober, healthy, courageous and warlike people, they easily 
defeated and subdued nations which had been long since ener- 
vated by the possession of great riches and an indolent life, or 
by effeminacy and dissolute manners. Another great cause of 
their success was the transcendent genius of Cyrus, who proved 
himself far superior in ability to all his adversaries, and who 
carried the science of war and government to a higher degree of 
perfection than any previous conqueror or monarch. — Far above 



RELIGION, GOVERNMENT, ETC. 113 

these particular causes, we ought to recognise in the rapid rise 
of this new monarchy, the action of God's providence, choosing, 
preparing and enabling the Persians to destroy the proud empire 
of Babylon, and to be the protectors of his chosen people. 

6. Decline. — But when the Persians, in their turn, permitted 
themselves to be weakened and corrupted by their prosperity; 
when their former virtuous dispositions and moral qualities were 
partly superseded by the opposite vices, and especially when 
they began to indulge in all the excesses of sensuality, effeminacy 
and luxury, they soon brought their monarchy to its decline.* 

It is, indeed, well known that this was not the case with the 
Persians only. The most enlightened statesmen, philosophers 
and historians have unanimously taught as an incontestable truth, 
that luxury carried to a certain degree never fails to cause the ruin 
of the most nourishing states; and constant experience has ever 
proved the accuracy of this maxim. But never did it so strikingly 
appear as among the Persians. They were no longer the same 
warlike nation that they had been before and under Cyrus ; they 
raised innumerable troops, but had few soldiers. On account of 
these numerous armies, and a certain natural bravery which they 
possessed, they might still appear formidable to the degenerate 
nations of the East; but, when they came in contact with the 
martial tribes of Europe, they experienced nothing but defeats 
and disappointments, till at length they were entirely overthrown 
by the bold attacks of the Macedonian conqueror. 

* See on this subject, the judicious remarks of Xenophon, in the last 
book and last chapter of his Cyropedia ; and those of Bossuet, in his 
admirable Discourse on Universal History, part iii, ch. 5. 



10* 



PART IV. 

FROM THE FOUNDATION OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE (b. C. 536) s TO ITS OVER- 
THROW, AND THE DEATH OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT (B. C. 324). 



EEIGN OF CYRUS.— b. c. 536— 529.— DEATH AND CHARACTER 
OF THAT PRINCE. 

The first care of Cyrus after he began to reign alone over the 
vast monarchy which he had founded, was to set the captive Jews 
at liberty and restore them to the land of their fathers. He 
published a solemn edict permitting them all to return thither, 
carry back their sacred vessels and rebuild the temple of Jeru- 
salem (b. c. 536).* 

They set out from Babylon to the number of about forty-two' 
thousand under the conduct of Zorobabel, a prince of the royal 
family of Juda. Owing to the jealousy of their neighbors, the 
Samaritans, they experienced great difficulty in carrying out the 
benevolent intentions of Cyrus and his successors; at length, re- 
peated decrees in their favor from the court of Persia, enabled 
them to reassume their former civil position and rebuild not only 
the temple, but also the walls and fortifications of Jerusalem. 
From that time, they long continued happy in the faithful ob- 
servance of their law under the constant protection of the Persian 
monarchs. 

As to Cyrus, the chief instrument and executor of God's de- 
signs in behalf of the chosen people, he now peacefully enjoyed 
the fruit of his labors and victories. "To those who were sub- 
ject to him," says Xenophon, "he showed all kindness and 
regard as to his children; and they returned to Cyrus duty, 
afiection and respect as to a father."f A man of truly superior 
genius, he displayed in the government of the vast dominions 
under his sway, the same consummate prudence and successful 

* See the end of the second book of Paralipomenon and the begin- 
ning of the first book of Esdras. 
| Cyrop. b. viii, ch. 8. 
114 



b. c. 53G— 529. REIGN OF CYRUS. 115 

ability that he had so long evinced at the head of armies. His 
empire extended from the river Indus to the iEgean shore, and 
from the Euxine and Caspian seas to the Arabian sea and the 
boundaries of ^Ethiopia. He usually resided, during autumn 
and winter, in Babylon, on account of the greater warmth of the 
climate ; he spent the spring in Susa, and the summer season, or 
the greater portion of it, in Ecbatana, under a more northern 
and cool temperature. 

To a very advanced age Cyrus enjoyed excellent health, the 
fruit of his sober and temperate life. The manner of his death 
is not certainly known. If we may believe Herodotus and 
Justin,* he fell into an ambuscade, and was slain with two hun- 
dred thousand men of his troops, in a battle against the Scy- 
thians. According to the more credible account of Xenophon,f 
Cyrus, having undertaken a new journey to Persia, died there 
very calmly in his bed, surrounded by his family and friends. J 

* Herodotus, b. i, ch. 214. — Justin, b. i, cli. 8. 

f Cyrop. b. viii, ch. 7. 

% "This is," says Dr. Prideaux, "by much the more probable ac- 
count of the two ; for it is by no means likely that so wise a man as 
Cyrus, and so advanced in years as he then was, should engage in so 
rash an undertaking as that Scythian expedition is described by those 
who tell us of it. Neither can it be conceived how, after such a blow, 
his new-erected empire could have been upheld, especially in the hands 
of such a successor as Cambyses was, or jiow it could be possible that 
he should, so soon after it, be in a condition to wage such a war as he 
did with the Egyptians, and make such an absolute conquest of that 
country as he did. That such a wild-headed man could settle himself 
so easily in his father's new-erected empire, and hold it in such quiet at 
home, and so soon after his coming to it, enlarge it with such conquests 
abroad, could certainly be owing to nothing else, but that it was founded 
in the highest wisdom, and left to him in the highest tranquillity. 
Besides, all authors agree, that Cyrus was buried at Pasargada, in 
Persia ; in which country, Xenophon saith he died, and his monument 
there continued to the time of Alexander : (Strabo, lib. 15, p. 730 ; 
Plutarchus in vita Alexandria Q. Curtius, Arrianus, aliique). But if he 
had been slain in Scythia, and his body there mangled by way of in- 
dignity to it, in such a manner as Herodotus and Justin do relate, how 
can we suppose it could ever have been brought thence out of those 
enraged barbarians, to be buried at Pasargada?" — Prideaux's Con- 
nections, or History of the Jews and neighboring nations, vol. i, b. iii, ad 
ann. b. c. 580. 

In another place (ad ann. b. c. 559), the same author shows with 
equal perspicuit}^, that Xenophon's account at large of the life and 
actions of Cyrus is highly preferable to that given by Herodotus and 
his copiers ; contrary to the opinion of those who consider the Cyro- 
pedia of the farmer, not as an authentic history, but as an historical 
romance and a description, not of what that prince really was, but of 



116 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part IV. 

He lived about seventy years, thirty of which had elapsed since 
the beginning of his public and military career; nine from the 
taking of Babylon, and seven from the time when he commenced 
to reign alone, after the death of his uncle Cyaxares II. 

Cyrus had the misfortune not to know and worship the true 
God, by whom he was favored with so much prosperity. Be- 

wliat a just and virtuous prince ought to be. The words of the English 
historian of the Jews, are as follows : 

" It must be acknowledged, that Xenophon, being a great commander 
as well as a great philosopher, did graft many of his maxims of war 
and policy into that history, and to make it a vehicle for this, perchance 
was his whole design in writing that book. But it doth not follow from 
hence, but that still the whole foundation and groundplot of the work 
may be all true history. That he intended it for such, is plain," (from 
the work itself, especially from the beginning, where he testifies his 
labor and diligence of research) ; "and that it was so, its agreeable- 
ness with the holy writ doth abundantly verify. And the true reason 
why he chose the life of Cyrus before all others for the purpose above- 
mentioned, seemeth to be no other, but that he found the true history 
of that excellent and gallant prince to be, above all others, the fittest 
for those maxims of right policy and true princely virtue to correspond 
with, which he grafted upon it. And therefore, bating the military 
and political reflections, the descants, discourses, and speeches inter- 
spersed in that work, which must be acknowledged to have been all of 
Xenophon's addition, the remaining bare matters of fact I take to have 
been related by that author, as the true history of Cyrus. And thus 
far I think him to have been of much better credit in this matter than 
Herodotus. For Herodotus, having travelled through Egypt, Syria, 
and several other countries, in order to the writing of his history, did 
as travellers use to do, that is, put down all relations upon trust as he 
met with them, and no doubt he was imposed on in many of them;" 
the more so, as he appears, in many parts of his narrative, to have 
been over-credulous and fond of marvellous stories. "But Xenophon 
was a man of another character (Diog. Laertius in vita Xenophontis), 
who wrote all things with great judgment and due consideration ; and 
having lived in the court of Cyrus the Younger, a descendant of the 
Cyrus whom we now speak of, had opportunities of being better in- 
formed of what he wrote of this great prince, than Herodotus was ; and 
confining himself to this argument only, no doubt he examined all mat- 
ters relating to it more thoroughly, and gave a more accurate and 
exact account of them, than could be expected from the other, wh'o 
wrote of all things at large as they came in his way." 

Thus far Prideaux, whose views not being biassed in this by any sec- 
tarian spirit or national prejudice, seem decisive in favor of Xenophon. 
For these reasons, a multitude of judicious writers and critics do not 
hesitate to follow the Cyropedia, rather than any other account of 
Cyrus' life and actions, that differs from it. Such, among others, are 
the learned authors of English Univ. Hist. vol. vii, pp. 290 — 292, and 
313; — Bossuet, Discourse on Univ. Hist, part i, ad ann. b. c. 536; — 
Kollin's Ancient Hist., vol. ii, pp. 278 — 282; — Gerard, Lecons sur VHis- 
toire, vol. v, pp. 402, 403 ; etc. 



B. c. 536—529. REIGN OF CYRUS. 117 

sides what profane history repeatedly tells us of his sacrifices to 
the gods, we read in the Scripture, " Thus saith the Lord to my 

anointed Cyrus I am the Lord, and there is none else ; 

there is no God besides me ; I girded thee, and thou hast not 
known me.*" He is also reproached for not having taken that 
care of the education of his sons, which had been taken of his 
own. But, in other respects, how many qualifications and moral 
virtues adorned the character of Cyrus ! He united all the re- 
quisites of a true hero, a great conqueror and an excellent mo- 
.narch, such as courage, wisdom, clemency, magnanimity, and a libe- 
rality that made him value riches only so far as they enabled 
him to do good ; a wonderful ability in conducting men by insi- 
nuation and mildness; a thorough knowledge of the military 
science of his time, which he even greatly improved among 
the Persians \ an inventive genius, astonishing activity and con- 
summate prudence in prosecuting the greatest and most arduous 
designs. 

It is easy for some persons to appear great on public occasions, 
for instance, on the field of battle, whilst their private life may 
'be mean and contemptible. Not so Cyrus. Chaste, modest and 
temperate, he always appeared the same, that is, always great, 
even in the most ordinary actions of life. Notwithstanding the 
superiority of his talents, he was never ashamed to ask advice, 
and to prefer, whenever circumstances required it, the judgment 
of others to his own. Easiness of access, kindness of manners, 
affability and moderation, ever shone conspicuous in him, and 
without weakening the respect, gained him the affection of every 
one ; Cicero makes the remark that this prince, during the whole 
time of his government, was never heard to speak one harsh or 
angry word.f This is certainly one of the highest encomiums 
that can be bestowed on a monarch raised to the summit of power 
and greatness ; and yet there was something in him still more 
praiseworthy, viz. : his intimate and practical persuasion that all 
his labors and efforts ought to tend to the happiness of his peo- 
ple. Hence, the same illustrious author does not hesitate to say 
that the reign of Cyrus is justly proposed by Xenophon as a 
model of an excellent government. | 

It was by the happy union of so many moral qualifications and 
so much ability, that this great prince founded in a short time a 

* Isa. xlv, i, 5. 

f Cujus summo in imperio nemo nnquam verbum ullum asperius au- 
divit. Libr. i. Epist. 2. ad Quint, pair. 

% Cyrus a Xenophonte scriptus est ad justi effigiem imperii. — Idem, 
Ej'ist. ad Quint, fratr. 



118 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part IV. 

very extensive empire ; governed it with great facility during the 
remainder of his life; enjoyed the esteem and love, not only of 
his native subjects, "but also of the nations whom he had sub- 
dued, and, after his death, was universally regretted as the com- 
mon father of all. 

FIRST SUCCESSORS OF CYRUS— CAMBYSES AND SMERDIS. 
b. c. 529—521. 

The most accomplished monarch of profane antiquity left hisr 
place to be filled by a wretched prince, a very madman ; for such 
was Cambyses, the son and successor of Cyrus. He did not seem 
to be naturally deficient in talent, much less in courage j but, 
being irascible in the extreme, violent, revengeful and prone to 
cruelty, he commonly followed no other guide than the impulse 
of the moment and the dictate of passion. 

In the fourth year of his reign, Cambyses declared war against 
Egypt, which country had probably shaken off the Persian yoke. 
He first attacked Pelusium, the key of that kingdom on the 
eastern frontier, and to accelerate the conquest of this place had 
recourse to a singular and cunning stratagem. By his command, 
the Persians, in going to the assault, placed just before them a 
large number of cats, dogs, sheep and other animals held sacred 
by the Egyptians : as the soldiers of the garrison, for fear of 
killing some of these animals, would not hurl their darts nor 
make use of their weapons against the assailants, the city was 
carried without opposition. — A numerous army of Egyptians, 
who came forward to arrest the progress of Cambyses, was de- 
feated with nearly the same facility j Memphis, their capital, was 
taken by storm, and in a short time the whole country submitted 
to the Persian monarch. 

King Psammenitus himself had fallen into the hands of the 
conqueror. He at first experienced a kind and even honorable 
treatment ; but, as he repaid this kindness and generosity only 
by exciting fresh disturbances, he was made to suffer the punish- 
ment of death. The Egyptians may be said to have lost from 
that time their national existence. Frequently, it is true, they 
endeavored to recover it j but they could never obtain entire and 
lasting success, and all their efforts to this purpose served only, 
sooner and later, to rivet their chains more closely. 

Cambyses, greatly animated by the advantages which he bad 
obtained, resolved to pursue his career of conquest. Ethiopia 
and that part of Africa inhabited by the Ammonians, were now 
the principal objects of his ambition; he sent a detachment of 



b. c. 529—521. FIRST SUCCESSORS OF CYRUS. 119 

fifty thousand men against the latter, and he himself led the 
main body of his troops against the former. No expedition 
could have been more rashly undertaken, or more fatally con- 
cluded. The detachment, after having passed the city of Oasis, 
was, it is believed, buried in the desert under heaps of moving 
sand ; and famine destroyed so great a number of soldiers in the 
rest of the army, that Cambyses was obliged to go back in shame 
and disgrace. 

On his way, he again entered Memphis, and found that city in 
the midst of rejoicings. Imagining that the ill success of his 
enterprise was the cause of this great joy, he fell into a rage, 
and caused the magistrates to be put to death. Being then told 
by the priests, that the source of the public exultation was the 
discovery of their god Apis, he expressed a desire to see him ; 
when, instead of a god, he saw a calf, he again gave way to his 
fury, and killed the animal with a dagger. 

Still greater were the excesses perpetrated by Cambyses against 
the members of his own family. Having with him in the army 
his brother Smerdis, he began to entertain a silly and base jea- 
lousy on his account. For this reason, he first sent him away to 
Persia, and then after a dream which renewed his apprehension, 
despatched an executioner to behead that unfortunate prince. 
He killed his sister Meroe in a still more shocking manner, 
namely, by a violent blow with his foot. These and other crimes 
rendered him so odious, that another Smerdis, strikingly resem- 
bling the prince of that name, caused himself to be proclaimed 
king as the true son and successor of Cyrus. 

Cambyses was apprized of this event, whilst on his way from 
Egypt. He immediately prepared to march at the head of his 
troops against the usurper ; but, as he was mounting his horse 
for this expedition, his sword slipped out of the scabbard, and so 
seriously wounded him, that he died in a few days, after he had 
reigned seven years and eight months (b. c. 52:2). 

The premature death of Cambyses, and the previous murder 
of his brother which had been generally kept secret, secured for 
a time the possession of the throne to the counterfeit Smerdis: 
he endeavored, by many benefits and favors, to gain the affec- 
tion of the people, taking at the same time every precaution to 
conceal his imposture, which was, however, strongly suspected 
by the chief lords of the court. Through a confidential person 
who lived in the palace, they fully ascertained the fraud, from 
the fact that the very man who now reigned over the Persians 
had formerly had his ears cut off by order of Cyrus. 

Upon the verification of this important fact in the person of 



120 ANCIENT HISTORY. ' Part IV. 

Smerdis, the lords unanimously resolved to deliver their country 
and themselves from the sway of that usurper. Before their 
design could in any way come to notice, they obtained admission 
into the palace, and having, either by persuasion or open force, 
reached the royal apartments, they killed Smerdis j then sever- 
ing the head from the body, they immediately showed it to the 
people, in order to make the whole imposture universally known. 
On the following day, Darius Hystaspes, one of the seven lords 
who had carried out this bold attempt, was saluted king by the 
other six ; and he, on his part, showed his gratitude by confer- 
ring on them ample privileges, and raising them to the highest 
dignities. 

This revolution happened in the year B. c. 521. It was the 
beginning of a long and celebrated reign, of which we will have 
much to say, after having taken a view of the contemporary 
transactions at Rome and Athens. 



TARQUIN THE PROUD, THE LAST OF THE ROMAN KINGS.— 
b. c. 534—509. 

The crafty ambition of an impostor had, within a short time, 
occasioned in Persia a double change of dynasty; at Rome, the 
pride and cruelty of a tyrant led the way to a change of the 
monarchical into the republican form of government. Lucius 
Tarquin, justly surnamed the proud, after having usurped the 
sovereign power by the murder of his father-in-law Servius, re- 
tained possession of the throne by the same odious means to 
which he owed his elevation. His whole reign presented a series 
of cruelties and acts of injustice. Hence, neither his victories 
and conquests over the enemies of Rome, nor the splendid edifices 
which he undertook or finished in the city, could wipe away the 
stain of his usurpation, and obliterate the remembrance of his 
crimes. His power was upheld by numerous bands of soldiers 
and satellites; but his subjects were his enemies, and readily 
availed themselves of the first opportunity to overthrow his op- 
pressive domination. 

During the siege of Ardea, a rich city of the Rutuli, Sextus 
Tarquinius, the king's son, offered violence to Lucretia, the vir- 
tuous wife of his cousin Collatinus. This lady, in the deepest 
affliction, called in her husband, her father, and their intimate 
friends Valerius and Brutus, and, having entreated them to 
punish her oppressor, stabbed herself with a dagger and fell dead 
in their presence. Brutus, raising the bloody weapon, swore on 
the spot that he would pursue the tyrant and his family with 



b. c. 509—496. HOME A REPUBLIC. 121 

fire and sword, until royalty should bo abolished in Rome. His 
three friends took the same oath. Their indignation was soon 
communicated to the other citizens; the people and the army 
joined in their views, and a decree was passed, with unanimous 
consent, to banish from among them not only the Tarquins, but 
even the title and the name of king. This decree was immedi- 
ately enforced, and its execution put an end to the regal power 
in Rome, after it had lasted, under seven successive kings, for 
the space of two hundred and forty-four j^ears (b. c. 753 — 509). 

ROME A REPUBLIC— CONSULS.— WAR AGAINST PORSENNA.— 
BATTLE OF REGILLUS WHICH INSURED THE EXISTENCE 
OF THE COMMONWEALTH.— b. c. 509—496. 

« 
The Roman people now directed their attention to the adop- 
tion of a new form of government. After several debates, it was 
unanimously agreed that two supreme magistrates, under the 
name of Consuls, should be annually chosen from the patrician 
order by the suffrages of the citizens, for the administration of 
the commonwealth. These magistrates were to be invested with 
full power to convene public meetings, to preside over the senate, 
to levy troops, and select their officers, to administer the revenues 
of the state, and impart justice to private persons, etc. Hence 
their authority might, in some respect, be deemed equal to that 
of kings; but, besides its being divided between two, it was not to 
extend, in virtue of each election, beyond the term of one year, 
and the modest appellation of consuls constantly reminded them 
that they were, not the sovereigns, but the counsellors and 
guardians of the republic. 

The first Romans whom the choice of the people raised to this 
dignity, were Brutus and Collatinus. The latter did not possess 
it long. Although the most deeply injured in the tragical affair 
of Lucretia, he became somewhat odious to the citizens, merely 
by evincing less energy than his colleague against the exiled 
family of the Tarquins, and for this reason he was earnestly ex- 
horted, and at last prevailed upon to resign his office, which was 
immediately conferred on Valerius. 

In the mean time, Tarquin, the dispossessed monarch of Rome, 
was devising every measure to recover his throne. He had re- 
tired among the Etrurians, from whom he was descended on the 
maternal side; they agreed, at his earnest request, to send an 
embassy to Rome, for the purpose of recovering his movable 
property. But the ambassadors were also directed to make every 
exertion to prepare the way for his return. They fulfilled both 

11 



122 ANCIENT HISTORY. Pari IV. 

commissions with great zeal and every appearance of success : the 
senate granted their first request; and, as to their second and 
much more important object, many young men of the first 
nobility in Rome did not hesitate to adopt their views concern- 
ing the re-establishment of royalty in the person of Tarquin. 

The momentous plan was already arranged, and measures 
adopted for its accomplishment, when the whole conspiracy was 
detected by a slave called Vindicius, who had overheard the con- 
versation of the accomplices. They were immediately arrested, 
and their letters to the tyrant having fallen into the hands of 
the consuls, removed every doubt as to the reality of the plot. 
It was a distressing sight for Brutus to find his two sons among 
the conspirators; the more so, as his office of first consul obliged 
him to act as their judge. That stern Roman, not shrinking 
from the duty, without hesitation sacrificed parental affection to 
the liberty of his country; and the two unhappy young men, 
with their accomplices, suffered capital punishment. 

So terrible an execution raised to the highest pitch the ani- 
mosity of the two parties. When Tarquin shortly after attacked 
Rome at the head of an army, the battle was obstinately dis- 
puted, and the loss nearly equal on both sides. The Romans, it 
is true, remained masters of the field, but they had to deplore 
the loss of Brutus, who fell during the conflict by the hand of 
Aruns, one of the sons of Tarquin, after having inflicted a mortal 
wound on Aruns himself. He was honored by the people with 
magnificent obsequies; and the Roman ladies, with unanimous 
consent, wore mourning for him during a whole year, in order to 
show their gratitude for the zealous avenger of chastity. 

Not long after, the Romans suffered another great loss by the 
death of Valerius, the friend and colleague of Brutus. This 
great man, notwithstanding the numerous proofs he had given 
of patriotism and devotedness to the commonwealth, was once 
suspected of aspiring to royalty, chiefly because he inhabited a 
house of difficult access and built upon a hill, as if he had in- 
tended to make it a citadel. He was no sooner apprized of this 
unjust suspicion, than he caused the house to be entirely demo- 
lished. He moreover passed many laws highly favorable to 
public liberty; among others, one which permitted every citizen 
condemned to any severe punishment, to appeal from the sen- 
tence of the magistrate to the judgment of the people. For this 
reason, Valerius was surnamed Fuhlicola, and is still known in 
history under that popular title. But what did him still greater 
honor, was his perfect disinterestedness : although he passed 
through the highest offices of the state, and had for a long time 



B. c. 509—496, ROME A RErUBLIC. 123 

the management of the public revenues, he never sought to 
enrich himself, nor even to increase his little fortune. He died 
so poor that he did not leave enough to meet the funeral ex- 
penses. They were, of course, amply defrayed by the govern- 
ment, and the same honors were paid to him that had been paid 
to the memory of Brutus. 

The authors and chief defenders of Roman liberty were gradu- 
ally disappearing; but the spirit which animated them still 
lived, and others, endowed with the same indomitable energy of 
soul, arose in their stead, to support and strengthen the fabric 
so successfully begun. A fresh attack directed against them by 
their former sovereign, required once more the display of their 
courage. The army of the assailants was headed at this time by 
Porsenna, king of the Etrurians, a prince justly renowned for his 
conduct and valor, and an ally of the Tarquins. In a first battle 
fought near the Tiber, the Roman generals were wounded, and 
their troops put to flight after a sharp and bloody conflict. The 
conquerors would have entered the city together with the fugi- 
tives, had it not been for the wonderful intrepidity of a Roman 
called Horatius Codes. This brave warrior placed himself at 
the entrance of the bridge over which the pursuers had to pass, 
and defended it in spite of all their efforts, till the bridge was 
entirely broken down behind him by his fellow-soldiers. He 
then leaped with his arms into the Tiber, and swam safely to 
his friends, "having/' says Livy, "achieved an exploit which 
posterity will find it more easy to admire than to believe."* 

A second engagement proved more favorable to the Romans, 
and cost Porsenna no less than five thousand of his soldiers; this 
made him take the determination to change the siege into a 
blockade, and endeavor to reduce the city by famine. Starvation 
began to rage fearfully among the inhabitants, whose number 
being about three hundred thousand soon exhausted their provi- 
sions. In this distress, the Romans were again rescued from 
further danger by the daring and desperate act of one of their 
citizens, a conspicuous youth named Mucius, and afterwards sur- 
nanied Scxvola : that young man entered the Etrurian camp 
unperccived, and penetrating into the very tent of Porsenna, 
killed the secretary whom he mistook for the king. Porsenna 
generously spared his life; but, alarmed at the danger to which 
he had been exposed, and struck at the obstinate courage of the 
Romans, he entered into a treaty with them. On the single con- 

* Armatus in Tibcrim desiluit, multisque superincidentibus telis 
incolumis ad suos tranavit, rem ausus plus fanite kabituraru ad pos- 
teros, quam fidei. — Livy, b. ii, ch. 10. 



124 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part IV. 

dition that a certain extent of territory formerly belonging to 
the Etrurians should be restored, he put an end to the siege, and 
left the royal exiles to their own resources.* 

The aged Tarquin did not yet think his case entirely hopeless. 
Notwithstanding the failure of so many exertions, he still pre- 
served sufficient influence over the Latin tribes, to make them 
unite with him in a league against the Romans. The armies 
took the field and met near Lake Regillus, whence the decisive 
action which followed took its name. Never was a battle fought 
with greater animosity. The chief leaders of both parties ani- 
mated their troops still more by example than by words, and 
were found in the hpttest part of the conflict; hence, nearly all 
of them were killed or wounded — among others, a brother and 
two sons of the illustrious Publicola on the one side, and on the 
other, a son-in-law and the two remaining sons of Tarquin, lost 
their lives whilst performing prodigies of valor. At last, the 
Romans by desperate efforts caused victory to declare in their 
favor. About twenty-seven thousand men had been engaged on 
their side, and forty -three thousand on that of theJLatins, nearly 
seventy thousand in all; of the latter, only ten thousand escaped. 
Their terrified countrymen immediately sent ambassadors to sue 
for peace. It was granted on moderate terms, and the Romans 
established more firmly than ever their noble political maxim, to 
conquer the proud and spare the vanquished. f 

This important victory most effectually secured the common- 
wealth of Rome. Tarquin, being now left both without a family 
and without resources, retired to Cumas in Campania, where he 
died shortly after in grief and misery, at the advanced age of 
ninety years. 

Of the natural abilities of this prince there can be no doubt. 
If we consider attentively his successful exertions for the 
splendor of Rome, his courage in war, his constancy in misfor- 
tune, his powerful, incessant and almost successful efforts for the 
recovery of this throne, and above all, the skill with which he 
knew how to interest so many cities and nations in his behalf, 
we cannot withhold from Tarquin some tribute of admiration. 
Still, his name has come down to posterity justly loaded with 
disgrace ; and even during his lifetime, his pride, ambition and 
cruelty rendered him an object of public hatred. So true it is, 

* Such is the ordinary account, founded on Livy's narrative, (b. ii, 
ch. 13), of the termination of the war against Porsenna. Some main- 
tain that Ptome was surrendered, and that the Etonians were, for a 
time, tributary to the Etrurians. 

•J- Parcere subjectis, et debellare superbos.— Virgil, JEneid, b. vi, 1. 853. 



b. c. 528—501. REVOLUTIONS IN ATHENS. 125 

that the most exalted talents without virtue cannot make a man 
truly great, nor save him from the detestation of his contempo- 
raries and the well-merited contempt of future ages. 

REVOLUTIONS IN ATHENS.— b. c. 528—501. 

By a singular^ coincidence, the same epoch, and perhaps the 
very same year that beheld the abolition of the regal power in 
Rome, witnessed a similar change in Athens. This last city, 
after undergoing many revolutions, had finally submitted to the 
sway of Pisistratus ; he governed it with great moderation and 
wisdom, till the year of his death (b. c. 528). His authority 
was transmitted, without opposition, to his sons Ilippias and 
Hipparcus, who seemed likewise to have inherited from their 
father a singular esteem for learning and learned men. Their 
court was the residence of the best scholars of that age, among 
others of the famous poets Anacreon and Simonides. The arts and 
sciences were cultivated with increased ardor; care was taken 
of the moral instruction of the people j civilization was rapidly 
progressing. Still, under these promising appearances, there 
lurked a spirit of new political revolutions. Some acts of arbi- 
trary power on the part of Hipparcus, soon led to the most serious 
consequences : two young Athenians, finding themselves insulted, 
resolved to take ample revenge by the death of the two brother-. 

The first victim of their resentment was Hipparcus, the author 
of the insult; they boldly attacked and slew him during the 
celebration of a certain festivity. They themselves, it is true, 
were put to death for this daring attempt, but this did not save 
the family of Pisistratus from entire ruin; for Ilippias, having 
also become a tyrant and rendered himself extremely odious to 
the people, was compelled to leave the city in or about the year 
B. c. 509. His expulsion from Athens was followed by the re- 
vival of the popular government. 

Hippias fled for refuge to the Persian satrap Artaphernes, 
governor of Sardis, and endeavored by every means in his power 
to involve that officer in a war against Athens. He represented 
to him the many advantages of such an expedition, and the great 
services which he himself, if repossessed of the sovereign autho- 
rity, might render to the Persians: Artaphernes, moved by these 
considerations, summoned the Athenians to reinstate Hippias 
among them ; but the summons met with no other answer than 
a peremptory refusal. This was the first cause of the famous 
war which very shortly after broke out between the Persians and 
(R e Greeks. 

11* 



126 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part IV. 



PERSIAN EMPIRE. 

REIGN OF DARIUS HYSTASPES TILL THE BEGINNING OF HIS 
WAR AGAINST THE GREEKS.— b. c. 521—500. 

AVe have already related how Darius arrived at the sovereign 
power among the Persians. One of his first cares, after his 
accession to the throne, was to regulate the government of the 
provinces, of which he made a suitable division, under their 
governors or satraps ; and then he applied himself to the regula- 
tion of the royal finances. Before him, Cyrus and Cambyses 
had contented themselves with receiving such gifts or contribu- 
tions as the conquered nations offered, and exacting a certain 
number of troops, as the state of affairs required. But Darius 
began to think that he would not be able to maintain peace in so 
many countries, without standing armies to whom a certain pay 
should be allowed, and the punctual payment of which would 
require the imposition of taxes on the people. He therefore 
determined to adopt this measure, but in adopting it, he evinced, 
at the same time, great wisdom and moderation. Sending for 
the chief inhabitants and most experienced persons of the various 
provinces, he asked them whether certain sums, which he speci- 
fied, would be too great a tax for their respective districts. All 
answered that the sums were very moderate, and could not be 
burdensome to the people. The king, however, struck off one 
half of the amount, preferring rather to remain below the mark, 
than to incur in the slightest degree the imputation of oppressing 
his subjects. 

Still, as taxes are always odious, the Persians, who had given 
the surname of father to Cyrus and of master to Cambyses, gave 
to Darius that of merchant or broker. 

This prince, however, had displayed great foresight with re- 
gard to the future exigencies of his empire. No later than the 
fourth or fifth year of his reign, Babylon was the scene of open 
revolt, the repression of which occasioned an expensive levy of 
troops. 

That city, formerly the capital of the east, soon grew impa- 
tient of the Persian yoke, especially after the removal of the seat 
of government to Susa, a circumstance well calculated to dimi- 
nish its own wealth and splendor. The Babylonians took advan- 
tage of the late revolutions in Persia to prepare in secret for war, 
and now boldly setting up the standard of rebellion, they shut 
themselves up within their impregnable walls. Darius was 



B. c. 521—500. PERSIAN EMPIRE— DARIUS. 127 

obliged to besiege them with all his forces. He used every 
means of attack which the art of war could suggest, to make 
himself master of the place ; nor did he fail to put in practice 
the method formerly employed under Cyrus, that is, the turning 
of the river from its natural course. All his efforts and exer- 
tions were baffled by the experience and vigilance of the Baby- 
lonians : so that, having already spent twenty months in a tedious 
and fruitless siege, he began to despair of success, when a novel 
stratagem opened to the Persians the gates of Babylon. 

One of the chief commanders of the army, Zopirus, follow- 
ing no other impulse than th% ardor of his zeal, cut off his ears 
and nose, and wounded his whole body in a frightful manner. 
Thus disfigured and covered with blood, he fled to the Babylo- 
nians, whom he easily persuaded that Darius had reduced him 
to this shocking condition, for having exhorted this monarch to 
desist from so unprofitable a siege. He at the same time offered 
to assist them in taking revenge on Darius. The Babylonians, 
overjoyed at the acquisition of so able an officer, readily accepted 
his offer; they gave him a sufficient number of troops to make 
vigorous sallies, and so well did he conduct them, that three 
times in succession he defeated the Persians. At the sight of 
this constant success, the confidence of the Babylonians knew no 
longer any bounds. In the fulness of their security, they in- 
trusted Zopirus with the command of all their forces and the 
defence of the walls of their city. This was precisely what he 
desired. When Darius, according to previous agreement, ap- 
proached with his troops as if to make an assault, Zopirus opened 
the gates to him, and put him again in possession of a city which 
it was impossible to reduce by any other means. 

The conduct of the king towards the vanquished, though 
rigorous, was tempered with clemency. He condemned three 
thousand of them to death, as having been the most deeply in- 
volved in the late rebellion ; the rest he pardoned. He likewise 
ordered the powerful walls of Babylon to be partly demolished, 
and its hundred gates of brass to be pulled down, that it might 
never again be in a condition to rebel. 

As to Zopirus who, at his own expense, had rendered him so 
signal a service, Darius bestowed on him all the rewards and 
honors that a sovereign can possibly confer on a subject. He 
granted him for the remainder of his life the whole revenue of 
this opulent city, and was often heard to say that, if he had 
twenty Babylons, he would readily give them up to repay the 
cruel treatment which so devoted a friend had inflicted on him- 
self; it is even added by some that mingled feelings of compas- 



128 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part IV. 

sion and gratitude made him shed tears, whenever he happened 
to fix his eyes upon Zopirus. Sentiments like these do greater 
honor to a sovereign than the conquest of an empire. 

After the reduction of Babylon, Darius made great prepara- 
tions to attack the Scythians of Europe. This nation inhabited 
the vast regions lying between the Ister or Danube, and the Don 
or Tanais. It is commonly described by ancient historians and 
poets, as having been remarkable for the simplicity and inno- 
cence of its manners ; what other authors assert to the contrary, 
ought very probably to be understood of tribes of Scythians dif- 
ferent from those of whom we are now speaking. 

The ostensible reason of this prince for attacking them, was 
to be revenged on them for the invasion of Asia made by their 
ancestors more than a hundred years before ', but his real motive 
was ambition, and his chief object to extend his conquests. He 
set out from Susa with an army of seven hundred thousand men, 
and crossed at their head the Thracian Bosphorus, by a bridge 
of boats. Subduing the countries through which he advanced 
till he reached the Danube, he crossed that river in the same 
manner, and entered the Scythian territory. 

To defeat so formidable a foe, the Scythians prudently agreed 
to retire as he advanced, and at the same time to fill up all their 
wells and consume all the forage and provisions of' the places 
through which their enemies were to pass. It is easy to imagine 
how much the Persian army had to suffer, both from famine and 
the other difficulties of such a campaign. In vain did the king, 
through his messengers, urge the submission of the Scythians, 
or challenge them to a battle; they despised equally his sum- 
mons and exhortations, and continued to retire at his approach. 

When they knew or suspected their incautious aggressor to 
be reduced to the utmost distress, they sent him a herald with 
the following extraordinary present: a bird, a mouse, a frog and 
Jive arrows. Darius at first considered the gift a token of sub- 
mission. But Gobryas, one of the principal lords who accom- 
panied him, gave a very different and far more plausible inter- 
pretation of its meaning: "Know," said he to the Persians, 
"that unless you can fly in the air like birds, or hide yourselves 
in the earth like mice, or swim in the water like frogs, you shall 
not escape the arrows of the Scythians." 

The whole Persian army, marching over a vast and barren 
country, was in so deplorable a condition that it had constantly 
before it the prospect of almost inevitable ruin. Darius himself 
at last became sensible of the imminent peril which threatened 
his troops in case he should still go forward, and clearly saw 



B. c. 521—500. PERSIAN EMPIRE— DARIUS. 129 

thai there was not a moment to be lost in effecting his return. 
He therefore gave them immediate orders to retrace their steps 
towards the Danube with all possible speed. This they could 
not do without encountering new dangers and losing many of 
their number; yet they succeeded in reaching that river and 
re-crossing it, before they were overtaken in their flight by the 
Scythians. The king then, leaving a part of his army in Thrace 
to complete the subjugation of this country, went with the re- 
mainder to Sardis, where he gave them time to take all the repose 
they needed, after the hardships which they had endured in that 
ill-concerted and unfortunate expedition. 

Darius was much more successful in his attempt upon India. 
Here indeed he acted with much greater prudence, and before 
venturing an attack, caused the country on both sides of the 
river Indus to be carefully explored. When this was done, he 
led an army into India, and in a short time this rich and exten- 
sive territory was added to his dominions. 

But the most earnest desire of the Persian monarch, a desire 
which accompanied him to the grave, was to extend his conquests 
in Europe. His chief aim was to invade Greece, and especially 
to humble the Athenian people. We have already seen (page 
125), that Hippias, when expelled from Athens, took refuge near 
Artaphernes the governor of Sardis for Darius, and incessantly 
urged him to a war against his countrymen and former subjects. 
The Athenians on their side were incensed against Artaphernes, 
for taking under his protection a man whom they had banished 
from their city j hence, shortly after, when the Ionians or Greeks 
of Lesser Asia revolted against the Persian government, the 
Athenians readily espoused their cause, and furnished the insur- 
gents with such aid in vessels and men, as enabled them to attack 
Sardis and reduce it to ashes (b. c. 500). 

This event was the immediate cause of the war which Darius 
undertook against Greece. He had it so much at heart, even 
after the entire suppression of the Ionian revolt, that he ordered 
an officer to remind him daily of the Athenians. Thus, the 
burning of Sardis may be justly considered as the commencement 
of that astonishing struggle, so famous in history, between a small 
country that now would deserve no more than the name of a pro- 
vince or district, and a vast, powerful and formidable empire; a 
struggle in which the reader will repeatedly see a small number 
of men, jealous of their liberties, put to flight innumerable armies 
of invaders, destroy their mighty fleets, pursue them into their 
very territory, and compel the great king (the usual appellation 
of the Persian monarch) to accept degrading conditions of peace. 



130 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part IV. 

As this memorable war between the Greeks and the Persians 
was of long duration, we shall divide its history into three sec- 
tions, to answer the number of the kings of Persia, by whom or 
under whom it was successively conducted. 

I I. WAR BETWEEN THE GREEKS AND PERSIANS, COMMENCED 
UNDER DARIUS.— b. c. 500—485. 

The first expedition of the Persians against Greece was placed 
under the command of Mardonius, Darius' son-in-law. This 
general, having crossed the province of Thrace, marched through 
Macedon, which he easily subdued; but his fleet was assailed near 
Mount Athos by so furious a tempest, that three hundred of his 
ships were destroyed and nearly twenty thousand of his men 
perished. About the same time, the land army also met with a 
very severe loss. As the Persians were encamped in a place not 
sufficiently guarded, a party of Thracians attacked them during 
the night, slew many of them, and wounded Mardonius himself. 
This catastrophe obliged him to return to Asia, with the terrible 
disappointment of having failed in his enterprise against Greece 
both by land and sea. 

Darius, perceiving that he had placed too much reliance on 
the abilities of his son-in-law, recalled him from the command 
of the army, and substituted in his place two more experienced 
and able generals, called Datis and Artaphernes ; he caused them 
to be preceded by messengers, having charge to ask of all the 
Grecian states, land and water, as a mark of their submission. 
Many of the small cities of Greece, dreading the Persian power, 
literally complied with the summons. Not so Sparta and Athens, 
where, on the contrary, the law of nations was violated in the per- 
sons of those ambassadors; some of them were thrown into a 
well, the others into a deep ditch, where, they were told with 
irony, they might take the land and water which they desired. 

This new insult roused to the highest pitch the resentment of 
the Persians. Setting sail from the shores of Asia with six hun- 
dred vessels, they first attacked and conquered many islands of 
the JEgean sea; then directing their course towards Attica, they 
landed one hundred and ten thousand men near Marathon, a 
small town about twelve or fifteen miles from Athens. To this 
numerous force the Athenians could oppose only ten thousand 
soldiers, with an additional body of one thousand men, whom 
the Platseans, their neighbors, through gratitude for past ser- 
vices, readily sent to their assistance. The Spartans too had 
prepared to send them a body of troops; but not daring, through 



B. c. 500—485. GREEKS, PERSIANS.— DARIUS. 131 

some superstitious notion, to begin their march before the full 
moon, they could not arrive in time for the battle. 

The Athenians, thus left almost entirely to their own re- 
sources, did not lose courage; on the contrary, patriotism and 
the love of liberty seemed to make them superior to the ordinary 
feelings of nature. Their little army was under the command 
of ten generals, who exercised the chief authority by turn, each 
one a day. There were among them Miltiades, Aristides and 
Themistocles, three men of extraordinary merit and a most ex- 
alted mind : when the turn of Aristides was come to take the 
command, he resigned it to Miltiades, as the more skilful gene- 
ral; his colleagues did the same, and this generous conduct 
helped Miltiades to form his plan, for the a23proaching conflict, 
with equal energy and judgment. 

Like an able commander, he endeavored to make up, by the 
advantage of his position, for his deficiency in number and 
strength. To secure this object, he drew up his troops at the 
foot of a mountain, in order that the enemy might not be able 
either to surround them, or to attack them in the rear. He had 
also large trees cut down and thrown on both sides of the army, 
for the twofold purpose of rendering the Persian cavalry useless, 
and of covering his flanks ; the Athenians waited in this order for 
the signal of battle.' As soon as it was given, they rushed on 
the enemy with all the fury which national honor, courage and 
the dread of oppression can inspire. The Persians at first thought 
it an act of folly and madness on the part of their opponents, to 
begin the combat in this extraordinary manner; the more so, as 
they perceived neither archers nor cavalry. But they were 
quickly undeceived : their two wings were simultaneously at- 
tacked by the Athenians and Plateaus with such vigor as to be 
soon broken and put to flight. This first success was expected 
by Miltiades, who, in order to procure it, had purposely chosen 
to weaken his centre, that he might strengthen his wings, and 
enable them to make from the beginning an irresistible attack. 

But the Persians, on their side, seemed to have taken notice 
of the comparative weakness of the Athenian centre. They 
directed their greatest efforts against that point, and, by their 
bravery as well as superiority of numbers, began to obtain con- 
siderable advantage. Aristides and Themistocles, who led this 
portion of the army, displayed the most intrepid courage in with- 
standing the shock, but were obliged to give way, and beheld 
their battalions in danger of being entirely dispersed. Just at 
that moment, in accordance with the skilful plan of the com- 
mandur-in-chief, their two wings came up, having already com- 



132 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part IV- 

pletely routed those of the enemy. The fortune of the day was 
soon decided ; the Persians, finding themselves not only opposed 
in front, but also attacked on both flanks, lost courage, and were 
entirely driven from the field. To ensure their escape, they fled, 
not towards their camp, but towards their vessels; the victorious 
Athenians closely pursued them, and, besides capturing seven 
ships, set many others on fire (b. c. 490). 

Such was the battle of Marathon, one of the most memorable 
ever fought, whether we consider the disproportion of the forces 
or the importance of the result. The Persians lost in it upwards 
of six thousand men, besides those who perished in their burning 
vessels, or who were drowned in the sea, whilst endeavoring to 
effect their escape.* The Athenians lost no more than one hun- 
dred and ninety-two men, with two of their generals. 

All had fought like heroes. Among other instances of their 
undaunted courage, the intrepidity of Cynegirus, a brother of the 
poet iEschylus, shone conspicuous. Having pursued the fugi- 
tives as far as their vessels, he seized one of the ships first with 
his right hand, which was severed by the stroke of an axe ; then 
with the left, which shared the same fate. He then held the 
vessel with his very teeth, until he expired. 

Immediately after the battle, another Athenian soldier, still 
reeking with the blood of the enemy, ran to Athens with all 
possible speed, to gladden his fellow-citizens by the happy tidings 
of victory. When he reached the house of the magistrates, he 
uttered the words, " Rejoice, the victory is ours," and fell dead 
at their feet. 

On the following day, the succor of troops promised by the 
Lacedaemonians arrived. They had set out immediately after the 
full moon, and marched with such expedition, that, in the short 
space of three days, they had travelled about one hundred and 
thirty miles. They were too late for the combat; still, they 
proceeded to Marathon, where they saw the fields covered with 
the spoils and dead bodies of the Persians. After having con- 
gratulated the Athenians on the happy success of the battle, they 
returned to their own country. 

The battle of Marathon was of immense advantage to Greece. 

* The historian Justin (b. ii, ch. 9) makes the number of the Persians 
who fought at Marathon amount to six hundred thousand, and their 
loss upon the field of battle, or in consequence of the following ship- 
wreck, to two hundred thousand. These numbers are so very different 
from those given by Herodotus, b. vi, ch. 117, and Cornelius Nepos, in 
Milliad. ch. 5, that Justin's narrative deserves to be considered as a 
great exaggeration and inaccuracy. 



b. c. 500—485. GREEKS, PERSIANS.— DARIUS. 133 

It dispelled the terror hitherto inspired by the Persian name, 
and clearly proved that military success does not depend so much 
on numbers, as on the bravery of the troops and the prudence of 
their general. It taught the Greeks their real strength, and, by 
raising their courage to the highest degree, was one of the chief 
causes, and, as it were, the prelude of all the signal victories 
that followed. 

To honor the memory of those who perished in the battle, 
three monuments were erected on the very spot on which it was 
fought; one for the Athenians, another for the Plataeans, and a 
third for the slaves that had been enrolled among the soldiers on 
that occasion. As to Miltiades, the chief author of the glory 
won on the plains of Marathon, he was allowed the privilege of 
occupying the first place in a splendid picture of the battle drawn 
by order of the state, and of being represented at the head of 
the ten generals of the army, exhorting his soldiers and setting 
them an example of courage. 

■ This was the only recompense which this great man received. 
Shortly after, having partially failed in an expedition against the 
islands of the .ZEgean sea, he was, on his return, impeached for 
his want of success, as if he had been bribed, and for the useless 
expense he had brought upon the state. He escaped capital 
punishment, but was condemned to a fine of fifty talents (fifty or 
sixty thousand dollars), and, being unable to pay so considerable 
a sum, was thrown into prison, where -he died of a wound that 
he had received in the island of Paros. Cimon, his son, then 
very young, displayed his filial piety on this occasion in a remark- 
able manner. He obtained leave to procure an honorable burial 
for the remains of Miltiades, and reinstated his memory, by pay- 
ing the fine of fifty talents, which he collected among his rela- 
tions and friends. 

Aristides also, whose services were scarcely inferior to those 
of Miltiades, experienced in his turn the fickleness of his country- 
men. Although his wisdom and integrity were so conspicuous 
that he acquired from them the surname of Just, yet the intrigues 
of Themistocles, his rival in the administration, caused him to 
be condemned by the Athenians to a temporay exile. This kind 
of punishment was called ostracism, from the word ostrakon, 
shell, and is thus described by Plutarch, in his life of Aristides : 
Every citizen took a shell or a potsherd, on which he wrote the 
name of the person whom he desired to have banished, and car- 
ried it to a part of the market-place which was enclosed with 
wooden rails. The magistrates then counted the shells. If the 
number did not amount to six thousand, the ostracism had no 

12 



134: ANCIENT HISTORY. Part IV. 

effect; if it reached six thousand, the obnoxious person was de- 
clared an exile for five or ten years, but with permission to enjoy 
his estate. 

When Aristides was about to be banished, an illiterate burgher, 
who did not know him personally, happened to meet him, and 
showing his shell, requested him to write the name of Aristides 
upon it. "Has that man done you any injury?" asked Aristides. 
"No," replied the other, "nor do I know him; but I am vexed, 
I am wearied to hear him everywhere called the Just." Aris- 
tides made no answer, but took the shell, and having written 
his own name upon it, returned it to the man, and set out for 
his exile. 

It was thus, as many other instances will show, that this 
capricious and inconstant people usually rewarded their most 
illustrious citizens. However, so undeserved a treatment did 
not damp the patriotism of Aristides ; in leaving the city, he 
besought Heaven to avert from the Athenians any misfortune 
and accident that might make them regret his absence. Three 
years later, at the time of the second Persian invasion, the 
decree of his banishment was reversed by the Athenians, and a 
public ordinance recalled him to the service of his country. 

In the interim, the news of the battle of Marathon had reached 
the Persian court. It exceedingly surprised and annoyed King 
Darius, but did not by any means dissuade him from carrying on 
the war against Greece, and rather animated him the more to 
pursue it with unrelenting vigor, in order to be revenged at once 
for the burning of Sardis and the defeat at Marathon. Nor was 
he diverted from his project by the insurrection of the Egyptians, 
which occurred about that time; this fresh obstacle merely in- 
duced him to undertake two expeditions instead of one. Always 
full of confidence, as well as courage, and not less determined to 
subdue his former enemies than to chastise his refractory sub- 
jects, he resolved, though at an advanced age, to put himself 
again at the head of his forces, and to employ a considerable por- 
tion of his army in the subjugation of Greece, whilst the other 
was to march against Egypt. 

But Darius had not sufficiently noticed the approach of another 
and more formidable enemy. Preparations on the most exten- 
sive scale were already made for his two intended expeditions, 
when death prevented him from carrying them into execution. 
He died after a memorable reign of thirty-six years (b. c. 485). 

The life of Darius proves that he was not entirely exempt 
from ambition, vanity and despotism. These blemishes, how- 
ever, seemed to proceed from the absolute power which he so 



B. c. 485—473. GREEKS, PERSIANS.— XERXES. 135 

long enjoyed, rather than from bis natural disposition; both as 
a man and as a sovereign, he was possessed of many excellent 
qualities. In him were blended gentleness, equity, clemency, 
and kindness for his people; he loved justice, and respected the 
laws; he esteemed merit, and took good care to reward it; he 
was extremely grateful for the favors which he received, and 
never failed to make a suitable return. He easily forgave 
injuries, even those which he felt most keenly. He was not 
jealous of his rank or authority, so as to exact a forced homage; 
on the contrary, he was easy of access, and notwithstanding his 
own great experience and ability in public affairs, he would 
hearken to the advice of others, and often profit by their 
counsels. 

With regard to military valor, Darius possessed it in an 
eminent degree. He was not afraid to brave the dangers of the 
battle-field; nor did he lose his presence of mind in the hottest 
part of the engagement, and he used to say of himself that his 
courage increased in proportion to the danger with which he was 
threatened. In a word, few princes have been more skilled in 
the science of war and government. Nor was the glory of being 
a conqueror wanting to his character. He failed, it is true, in his 
expedition against Scythia and in his attempt upon Greece; but, 
on the other hand, he succeeded in bringing back the revolted 
Ionians and Babylonians to obedience, and not only strengthened 
the empire of Cyrus, which had been much weakened by Cambyscs 
and the Magian impostors, but likewise added to it many great 
and rich provinces, such as India, Macedon, Thrace, and the 
isles near the coasts of Ionia. 

The greatest glory of Darius was, that Almighty God chose 
him, like another Cyrus, to be the instrument of his mercy 
towards his people, the declared protector of the Israelites, and 
the restorer of the temple of Jerusalem. The reader may see 
this part of his history in the first book of Esdras, and in the 
writings of the prophets Aggeus and Zacharias.* 



I II. WAR BETWEEN THE GREEKS AND PERSIANS, CONTINUED 
UNDER XERXES.— b. c. 485—473. 

The reign of Xerxes, according to the opinion of many learned 
chronologers and historians, lasted only twelve years; but it 
abounded in events of the highest importance. f 

* 1 Esdr. v and vi ; Agg. ii ; Zach. i. 

f See, for a full account of those events, the three last books of 
Herodotus ; Plutarch, in his lives of Thcmistodes and Arislides; Justin, 



136 ANCIENT HISTORY. Paht IV. 

A dispute arose between Xerxes and his brother Artabazanes, 
respecting the right of succession to the throne. The latter 
pleaded seniority of age; the former based his claim on his 
descent from Cyrus the Great by his mother Atossa, the second 
wife of Darius, and on the circumstance of his birth having taken 
place whilst Darius was on the throne, whereas Artabazanes had 
been born whilst his father was a private citizen. The two 
brothers agreed to make their uncle Artabanes arbitrator in the 
matter, and, without further a]3peal, to abide by his decision. In 
the meanwhile, they gave each other every proof of a truly fra- 
ternal affection, and maintained a cheerful intercourse founded 
on mutual esteem, confidence and friendship. When Artabanes 
gave his decision in favor of Xerxes, Artabazanes was the first 
to acknowledge his brother for his sovereign, and to place him 
on the throne, showing by this conduct a real merit and great- 
ness of soul far preferable to all human dignities. Nor was this 
a transient feeling of magnanimity j he always remained sincerely 
attached to Xerxes, and died whilst fighting in his service in the 
battle of Salamis. 

Unfortunately, Xerxes himself was far from preserving in all 
things, after his accession, the moderation he had evinced before 
his elevation. Having, without much difficulty, again subjected 
the Egyptians to the Persian sway, he thought that the Greeks 
would be as easily crushed by the overwhelming superiority of 
his forces. He spent four years in preparing vessels, troops and 
ammunition for this enterprise. Not to omit any thing which 
might contribute to secure the success of his expedition, he en- 
tered into a confederacy with the Carthaginians, then the most 
powerful nation of the west, and made an agreement with them, 
that, whilst the Persian armies would invade Greece properly so 
called, the Carthaginians should attack the Grecian colonies in 
Sicily and Italy, in order to prevent theft, from lending any as- 
sistance to the mother-country. 

When Xerxes had completed his preparations, he set out from 
Susa to join his army in Asia Minor, while the fleet advanced 
along the Ionian coast towards the Hellespont. He had caused, 
at a vast expense, a passage to be cut for his vessels through 
Mount Athos, a prominent mountain of Macedonia, and for his 
land troops, a bridge of boats to be built over the narrow seas 
which separate Asia from Europe. Shortly before his arrival, a 
sudden and violent storm destroyed the bridge. The news of 

b. ii, ch. x — xv ; Corn. Nepos, in Themist. Arist. et Pausaniam ; among 
the moderns, Barthelemi, Voyage du jeune Anacharsis en Grhce, vol. i ; 
E.ollin, vol. iii; Gerard, vol. vi; etc. 



B . c . 485—473. GREEKS, PERSIANS.— XERXES. 137 

this accident threw the king into such a passion, that, in his 
foolish pride, he ordered three hundred lashes of a whip to be 
inflicted on the sea, and chains to be thrown into it, to chastise 
the indocility of this boisterous element. 

By his commands, two other bridges were built, more solid 
than the first, the one for the troops, the other for the baggage 
and beasts of burden. Notwithstanding this wise precaution of 
a double bridge, it required seven days and seven nights for the 
army to pass from, the Asiatic to the European shores. So great 
indeed was the multitude of the soldiers who composed it, that, 
upon an exact review of them made by Xerxes, they were found 
to be about two millions, independently of three hundred thou- 
sand men destined to fight at sea. The fleet consisted of twelve 
hundred ships manned for war, besides two or three thousand 
smaller vessels intended for the transport of provisions and other 
uses. More than fifty nations, subject or tributary to the Per- 
sians, had contributed to this formidable fleet and army.* 

At the approach of this multitude, all the tribes inhabiting 
the countries through which they passed, were terrified, and 
made their submission ; in Greece itself, no cities except Sparta 
and Athens, with a few others of secondary rank, made even a 
show of resistance. What rendered the determination of the 
latter still more heroic, was that all their land troops ready for 
battle, amounted scarcely to eleven or twelve, and perhaps only 
to seven thousand men, in the beginning of the war. They were 
directed, under the conduct of Leonidas, one of the two Spartan 
kings, to make their first stand at the narrow passes called Ther- 
mopylae, which give an entrance from Thessaly into Greece. 

When Xerxes arrived near the Thermopylae, he was exceed- 
ingly surprised to find a handful of men prepared to dispute his 
passage. Still greater was his astonishment, when having sent 
against them two bodies of his best troops, he saw both detach- 
ments shamefully repulsed by the Greeks. His efforts to bribe 
Leonidas by splendid promises, or to terrify him by an imperious 
summons, were all in vain : the Lacedaemonian rejected every 

* The prophet Daniel had foretold this extraordinary combination 
of circumstances, long before the event. Writing on that subject to- 
wards the beginning of Cyrus's reign, he said, or rather the angel 
through whom lie received the divine revelation, said to him : " Behold, 
there shall stand yet three kings in Persia," viz. : (Cambys.es, Smcrdis 
Magus and Darius): "and the fourth," (viz.: Xerxes) "shall be en- 
riched exceedingly above them all; and when he shall be grown mighty 
by his riches, he shall stir up all against the kingdom of Greece." 
(ban. xi, 2). How striking and wonderful must this prophecy appear, 
when we sec it so accurately verified by the event ! 

12* 



138 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part IV. 

offer with scorn ; and to the summons to deliver up his arms, he 
replied, with truly laconic spirit, " Come and take them." 

This undaunted courage greatly perplexed Xerxes. Unable to 
advance, he was at a loss what step to take, when an inhabitant 
of the country discovered to him a secret path leading to the top 
of a mountain which commanded the Grecian camp ; the king 
immediately despatched a detachment to take possession of this 
advantageous post. Leonidas then perceived that it was impos- 
sible to make a longer stand against the enemy. Dismissing his 
allies, he kept with him three hundred Spartans, with about the 
same number of Thespians, all of them as determined as him- 
self, and they resolved to die together for the honor and benefit 
of their country. 

Between this heroic band and their countless opponents, the 
conflict was awful and bloody. The Lacedaemonians made an 
immense havoc among the Persians, before they were themselves 
destroyed. At last, overpowered by numbers, they all fell, ex- 
cept one man who escaped to Sparta, where he was looked upon 
as a traitor to his country, till he made amends for his flight by 
fighting with the greatest courage and losing his life in the battle 
of Platsea. Shortly after, a magnificent monument was erected 
in honor of the three hundred Spartans, near the spot where they 
fought and died, with an inscription expressive of their patriotism 
and indomitable valor. It was comprised in the following sen- 
tence : " Gro, traveller, and tell Sparta that we died here in obe- 
dience to her sacred laws." 

After this dearly bought victory, Xerxes, always at the head 
of his land forces, proceeded towards Attica, plundering and 
burning the towns in his way. On his arrival at Athens, he 
found it deserted by its inhabitants, with the exception of a few 
who had remained in the citadel, where they fought till death. 
This high-spirited people, seeing it impossible to avert the storm 
that threatened their city, and preferring liberty to their dwell- 
ings, had left them and embarked on board their fleet, which, 
through the care of Themistocles, was at that time in excellent 
condition. When it was joined by the vessels of their allies, it 
amounted to about three hundred ships ; a number, it is true, 
far inferior to that of the enemy, but still sufficient to harass 
them by desultory attacks, and to inflict severe losses on them 
before a decisive engagement could take place. 

They continued this desultory warfare for a time with great 
success, especially in the straits of Euboca, near Cape Artemi- 
sium. But no sooner was it known that Xerxes, having at last 
forced the defiles, was advancing into the heart of the country, 



b. c. 485—473. GREEKS, PERSIANS.— XERXES. 139 

than all the naval forces of Greece determined upon a retrograde 
movement. They reached Salamis, a small island opposite to 
the shore of Attica on the Athenian side, and were soon followed 
by the whole Persian fleet. 

Here they deliberated what course it would be expedient to 
pursue. Most of the leaders, supported by the commander-in- 
chief Eurybiades, a Lacedaemonian, were of opinion that they 
should retire still farther south towards Peloponnesus. Others 
on the contrary, among whom were Themistocles and Aristides, 
now well reconciled together, strongly maintained that the nar- 
row strait of Salamis was the most advantageous position that 
the Greeks could desire for a general battle, since it would of 
itself suffice to embarrass and render useless the great multitude 
of the Persian vessels. As on one occasion Themistocles urged his 
opinion with great vehemence in presence of the other generals, 
Eurybiades lifted his cane over him in a threatening manner. 
" Strike, if you will," said Themistocles, " but hear me." This 
moderation, and the solidity of his reasons, caused his advice to 
prevail in the council j and this new determination, aided by a 
stratagem of the Athenian hero, actually saved Greece.* 

The two fleets then made immediate preparations for battle. 
The Greeks were animated by the remembrance of all that is 
most dear in life ; Xerxes, to encourage his troops by his pre- 
sence, caused a throne to be erected for him on an eminence near 
the sea-shore. The Persians advanced with great impetuosity 
and courage ; but their ardor was soon checked by the superior 
discipline, ability and resolution of the Greeks, and even by the 
very number and bulk of their own vessels, which could scarcely 
move in that narrow passage. Thus embarrassed, and finding 
every circumstance, the place, the wind, etc., contrary to them, 
whilst every thing favored the enemy, they fought in disorder, 
then wavered, and finally fled. The Greeks destroyed two hun- 
dred of their ships, and took many others ; moreover, storms 
and contrary winds, both before and after the battle of Salamis, 
combiued to disperse this once formidable armament. Its shat- 
tered remains retired towards the Asiatic coast, and never after- 



* The conduct of Themistocles shows that he possessed, in an emi- 
nent degree, the two most essential requisites of a great general, pre- 
sence of mind in time of danger, and sagacity to contrive the best mea- 
sures for future contingencies. This is what Cornelius Nepos, in 
Themist. c. 1, elegantly expresses by the following words: '• Neque 
minus in rebus gerendis promptus, quiim excogitandis, erat, quod et de 
instantibus, ut ait Thucydides, vcrissime judicabat, et de futuris callviissiml 
eonjiciebat. 



140 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part IV- 

wards did a Persian fleet dare attempt the invasion of Greece 
(b. c. 480). 

Xerxes himself, astounded and terrified by his defeat, set an 
example of despondency. Leaving Mardonius with a considera- 
ble portion of his troops to carry on the war against the Greeks, 
he took the rest with him and marched, notwithstanding many 
obstacles, towards the Hellespont. To his great disappointment, 
he found the bridges broken and carried off by the violence of 
the waves. There was no possibility of repairing them ; so that 
he whose forces lately covered land and sea, was obliged to re- 
cross the strait in a small boat, nor did he think himself per- 
fectly secure till he had reached his own territory. 

Notwithstanding this signal defeat of the Persians at Salamis, 
some of their vessels made a brave resistance. Among their 
leaders, Artemisia queen of Halicarnassus, who commanded five 
ships, distinguished herself by her undaunted courage and acti- 
vity ; this made Xerxes exclaim that men had fought that day 
like women, and women like men. Towards the end of the 
battle, seeing herself in great danger of being taken, she lowered 
her flag and attacked a Persian vessel with great fury. This 
curious stratagem had the desired effect : the conquerors believ- 
ing that her ship was one of their own vessels, desisted from the 
pursuit. 

The battle of Salamis conferred immortal honor on all the 
Greeks, and especially on Themistocles, the Athenian leader; 
for, though he was only second in command, still it was he who 
directed the movements of the fleet, who prepared the way for a 
decisive action, and who ensured the victory by his consummate 
prudence. His admirable conduct and the important services 
which he had rendered to Greece, were now acknowledged by 
every one. The Lacedaemonians themselves paid homage to his 
uncommon merit, by giving him, in their own city, marks of 
esteem and respect never shown to any person before. What 
was still more, all Greece, as it were, did the same on a most 
solemn occasion. At the first Olympic games that were cele- 
brated after the battle of Salamis before an immense concoui'se 
of people, when Themistocles appeared, there was a burst of ap- 
plause from the whole assembly, and during all the day, the 
spectators ke{)t their eyes fixed upon him as the worthiest object 
of their admiration. In the judgment of Themistocles himself, 
this mark of public esteem was an ample reward for all his labors 
in the service of Greece. 

The bravery of Themistocles and Eurybiades at Salamis was 
imitated, the year after, by Aristides and the Lacedaemonian 



b. c. 485—473. GREEKS, PERSIANS.— XERXES. 141 

king Pausanias, in the equally famous battle of Plataca. Their 
troops, joined with those of the allies and considerably iner 
by previous success, amounted to about one hundred and ten 
thousand men, whilst the Persians, notwithstanding their preced- 
ing losses, brought into the field three hundred and fifty thou- 
sand combatants. The shock of these numerous and gallant 
armies was the most terrible that had been witnessed since the 
beginning of the war. The Lacedaemonians, Athenians and 
Plataeans performed prodigies of valor. The Persians likewise, 
with Mardonius at their head, displayed great courage : but when 
they saw their general fall, they fled to their intrenchments, 
whither the victorious Greeks pursued them with irresistible 
fury. The slaughter was so great, both during the battle and 
the pursuit, and in the forcing of the Persian camp, that of their 
whole army, no more than one-eighth part, that is, about forty 
thousand, escaped by a timely retreat.* 

To complete the disaster of the Persians in this unhappy ex- 
pedition, the same day in which the battle of Platsea was fought, 
their fleet was entirely destroyed on the Ionian shore. After 
spending the winter in the harbor of Cuma, an iEolian city, it 
had reached the promontory of Mycale near Ephesus, where the 
remainder of the land-troops who followed Xerxes on his return 
from Greece, were encamped. Here, according to the usual 
practice of the ancients, they drew their ships on shore, and sur- 
rounded them with a strong rampart. The Greeks having 
landed in the neighborhood, under the command of Leotychides 
the Lacedaemonian and Xanthippus the Athenian, fearlessly 
commenced an assault, forced the intrenchments, and putting 
many of the Persians to the sword, routed the remainder, and 
burned all their vessels. 

At the news of these repeated and signal overthrows, Xerxes 
left Sardis as precipitately as he had left Athens after the battle 
of Salaniis; and in order to put himself as far as possible out of 
the reach of his victorious enemies, he fled to a more distant part 
of his empire. From that epoch, so remarkable and glorious for 
the Greeks, no Persian army was ever seen on the European side 
of the Hellespont. 

Of all the states of Greece engaged in the late struggle, none 
had displayed greater energy or acquired greater honor than the 
Athenians. But their city, since the passage of Xerxes and 
Mardonius, was a heap of ruins, and the Lacedaemonians, yield- 
ing to a base feeling of jealousy, were throwing difficulties in the 

* Flutarch, in Aristid.— Herodotus, b. ix, ch. 70. 



142 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part IV. 

way of its re-establishment. The genius of Themistocles again 
surmounted every obstacle. By his activity and care, not only 
the city was rebuilt, but its position was rendered stronger, its 
harbor much enlarged, and its navy, already very nourishing, 
considerably increased. 

Themistocles thus constantly exerted himself for the glory and 
aggrandizement of his country, as well as for his own, but some- 
times was not scrupulous in the choice of his measures. On one 
occasion in particular, he declared before the assembly of the 
people, that he had contrived an expedient to secure for Athens 
a decided preponderance in Greece, yet that he could not make 
it publicly known, because its success required the utmost secrecy. 
Aristides was appointed to deliberate apart with him on the sub- 
ject. The design of Themistocles was to burn the whole fleet 
of their allies, in order to place under Athens alone the full and 
undisputed empire of the Grecian seas. When Aristides had 
been told of it, he returned to the assembly, and said that 
nothing, indeed, could appear more advantageous to the Athen- 
ians, but that, at the same time, nothing in the world could be 
more unjust than the contrivance of his colleague. Upon this 
decision, all the people, with an admirable sense of equity, 
ordered Themistocles to think no more of his project. 

The Grecian liberties were, at that time, still more seriously 
threatened by one of the Lacedaemonian kings, namely Pausanias, 
the conqueror of Platsea, who, elated with success, began to treat 
the allies with haughtiness and contempt. His pride carried him 
still farther. Weary of the simplicity of Spartan life, he sought 
to ingratiate himself with Xerxes, and under the hope of a 
splendid reward from that monarch, promised to betray the 
country into his hands. The plot was happily detected before it 
could be put into execution. Pausanias, to avoid the danger of 
being arrested and condemned, ran to a temple as to a safe 
asylum; but the entrance being immediately blocked up with 
large stones, it became impossible for him to make his escape, 
and he died of starvation. 

The direction of the public affairs in Greece was then com- 
mitted to Aristides and Cimon, whose modest, kind and prudent 
behavior had gained universal confidence. The allies, of their 
own accord, agreed to acknowledge Athens, preferably to Lace- 
dacmon, as the head of the Grecian confederacy; Sparta herself, 
ii' twithstanding her former jealousy and distrust of a rival city, 
h d magnanimity enough to acknowledge the wisdom of this 
measure. Even at present, every sensible reader feels a secret 
satisfaction in perceiving that moderation and mildness procure^ 



b. c. 473—449. GREEKS, PERSIANS.— ARTAXERXES. 143 

for the Athenians what they had generously refused to obtain by 
injustice and violence. 

Aristides did not long survive a change of administration so 
glorious to his nation, and so honorable to himself. This great 
man, after having filled the highest offices in the government of 
his country and directed for some time the public revenues of all 
Greece, died so poor that he did not leave money enough to pay 
the expenses of his funeral. The state had to take charge of it, 
and to provide for the support of his family. 

The same praise cannot be given to Themistocles; his domi- 
neering spirit and inordinate desire of glory provoked against 
him the envy or the fears of his citizens. He was even accused 
by the Lacedaemonians of having been an accomplice in the late 
conspiracy of Pausanias. The charge, it is true, had not suffi- 
cient foundation, and was refuted by Themistocles; yet, the party 
of his enemies and the suspicions of the people remained suffi- 
ciently strong to procure his banishment, not only from Athens, 
but also from all Greece and the neighboring states. In this 
extremity, Themistocles, estimating the magnanimity of an 
enemy by his own, resolved to apply for an asylum, to the very 
nation on whom he had before inflicted so many injuries, and 
set out for the court of the Persian monarch. 

\ III. WAR BETWEEN THE GREEKS AND PERSIANS CONCLUDED 
UNDER ARTAXERXES-LONGIMANUS.— b. c. 473—449. 

It was no longer Xerxes who reigned in Persia.* This prince, 
after an inglorious reign of twelve (many say twenty) years, was 
murdered in his own palace by Artabanes, the captain of his 
guards, and was succeeded on the throne by his son Artaxerxes. The 
latter is also known under the surname of Longimanus, which 
was given him on account of the extraordinary length of his 

* This is the obvious meaning of Thucydides, in the first book of his 
History, ch. 137, and of Cornelius Nepos, in Themist. ch. 9. The testi- 
mony of these two historians, especially of Thucydides, who wrote very 
near the time in which these events occurred, has certainly consider- 
able weight ; yet, it must be acknowledged that a different statement 
is found in Diodorus Siculus and others. For this reason, there exists 
a serious difficulty and. a great variety of opinions among the moderns, 
first as to the epoch when Xerxes ceased, and Artaxerxes began to 
reign ; and, secondly, to which one of these two monarchs Themistocles 
applied for protection. It would be useless to undertake here any dis- 
cussion on this matter. Leaving therefore the question to professed 
chronologists, we content ourselves with following the opinion, as above 
stated, of Usher, Bossuet, Calmet, Rollin, etc. If it be not the most 
probable, it is at least, every thing taken into consideration, the plain- 
est and least intricate, (see in the appendix \ II.) 



144: ANCIENT HISTORY. Part IV. 

hands. He is much praised by historians for his justice, good- 
ness, generosity, and the great care he took, by repressing abuses 
and disorders, to promote the happiness of his people. _ His 
kindness was extended to the Jews: whilst they experienced 
every sort of difficulty from their jealous neighbors, he issued, in 
their behalf, edicts and orders the most favorable that they could 
desire, and the best calculated to secure their religious and civil 
prosperity.* The second of these rescripts, issued in the twentieth 
year of his reign, is commonly assigned as the beginning of the 
seventy weeks (of years) spoken of by the prophet Daniel, which 
were to elapse till the death of Christ for the redemption of 
maukind."|" 

Artaxerxes evinced likewise great wisdom, resolution and 
activity in different wars against the Bactrians and Egyptians; 
he at first experienced great losses, but persevered in his efforts, 
and at length brought both of these wars to a successful issue. 
It will soon be perceived that he was not equally fortunate in the 
continuation of the grand Persian struggle against Greece. 

This was the monarch to whom Themistocles applied for refuge 
from the animosity or envy of his citizens. The event showed 
that the Athenian general had not set too high an estimate on 
Persian generosity; indeed the king received him with kindness, 
treated him with respect, gave him considerable influence at 
court, and allowed him the revenues of three cities for his sup- 
port and that of his household. He even determined to place 
him at the head of an army for a third attempt against Greece, 
but the proposal was for Themistocles a subject of extreme diffi- 
culty. Equally unwilling to displease his benefactor and to 
fight against his country, he is said by some to have put an end 
to his life by poison; many think, however, that he died a natural 
death at the age of sixty -five years, and that his bones were 
afterwards carried back to Athens. 

It seemed to be a right or privilege of the Athenian people to 
possess, during this period, an uninterrupted series of great men. 
After the banishment of Themistocles and the death of Aristides, 
the chief authority among them was exercised by two illustrious 
citizens, Pericles and Cimon. Both were equally distinguished 
by their abilities and their birth, the one being a son of Xan- 
thippus, the conqueror of the Persians at Mycale; the other the 
son of Miltiades, the still more celebrated conqueror of the same 
Persians at Marathon. Pericles, a man of great eloquence and 
insinuating manners, obtained a surprising ascendency over the 
minds of the Athenians. What was still more surprising, he 
* 1 Esdr. vii ; and 2 Esdr. ii. f Daniel ix, 24—27. 



B. o. 473—449. GREEKS, PERSIANS.— ARTAXERXES. 145 

maintained that ascendency during the space of forty years, by 
the exertions of his genius, his success in war, his largesses to 
the people, and the splendid monuments with which he embel- 
lished their city. Cimon, still more generous in his views, united 
in himself the courage of Miltiades his father, the exquisite pru- 
dence of Themistocles, and the disinterestedness as well as equity 
of Aristides, to which he added an uncommon beneficence and 
liberality. Having acquired a very great fortune, he made no 
other use of it than to benefit his fellow-citizens in every pos- 
sible way, especially those who appeared at the same time honest 
and poor. On the other hand, as he was a not less excellent 
general than profound politician, he raised Athens to the zenith 
of greatness and power. 

Much will be said of Pericles in another section. To speak 
now exclusively of Cimon, and first of his moral and social 
qualities, we will here mention several instances of his liberality, 
disinterestedness and wisdom, recorded by Plutarch and Cornelius 
Nepos in their biography and life of this illustrious man. 

" Cimon," says Plutarch, "had by this time acquired a great 
fortune; and what he had gained gloriously in the war from the 
enemy, he laid out with as much credit upon his fellow-citizens. 
He ordered the fences of his fields and gardens to be thrown 
down, that strangers as well as his own countrymen might par- 
take of his fruit. He had a supper provided at his house every 
day, in which the dishes were plain but sufficient for a multitude 
of guests. The poor citizens at large, especially those of his own 
tribe, repaired to it at pleasure and had their diet without care 
or trouble. When he walked out, he used to have a retinue of 
young men well clothed; and if he happened to meet an aged 
citizen in a mean dress, he ordered some one of them to change 
clothes with him. This was great and noble. But besides this, 
the same attendants carried with them a quantity of money, and 
when they met in the market-place with any necessitous person 
of honest appearance, they took care to slip some pieces into his 
hands as privately as possible." 

Cimon, it is true, was guided in this only by human and natu- 
ral motives; but what more could be expected from Pagan virtue? 
And do not the facts just related show of themselves that he pos- 
sessed a truly noble and generous soul; especially if we add to 
these what Cornelius Nepos says of him, that he was always ready 
to assist any one with his credit, his good services and his purse?* 

So liberal a character was far from having selfish views of 
preferment or increase of wealth. "Whilst he saw the other 

* Nulli fides, nulli opera, nulli res familiaris defuit (in Cimon. c. 4). 



146 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part IV. 

persons concerned in the administration, pillaging the public, he 
kept his own hands clean, and in all his speeches and actions 
continued to the last perfectly disinterested." 

To these excellent qualities Cinion joined an uncommon pru- 
dence, and a thorough knowledge of the characters and disposi- 
tions of men. "About this time the allies, though they paid 
their contributions, became wearied of furnishing troops and 
ships manned for war. Being no longer exposed to foreign in- 
vasion, they desired to be freed from the military service, and 
to cultivate their lands in quiet and tranquillity. The other 
Athenian generals took every method to make them comply 
literally with this part of the confederacy, and by prosecutions 
and fines rendered the Athenian government oppressive and 
invidious. But Cimon took a different course when he had the 
command. He used no compulsion, and receiving from the 
allies money and ships unmanned instead of troops^, let them 
indulge in domestic employments, whilst he made the Athenians 
serve by turn in his vessels, and kept them in continual exercise. 
By these means the allies, from a warlike people, became quite 
unfit for war; whereas the Athenians being always engaged in 
some expedition were trained to every fatigue and every part of 
the military service. Hence the power of the latter went on the 
increase, and those who were formerly their fellow-soldiers, in- 
sensibly became their tributaries and subjects."* 

No Grecian general humbled the pride and power of Persia 
like Cimon. Even after the Persian armies were entirely driven 
from Greece, he allowed them no respite, but closely pursuing 
them with two hundred sail, took their strongest maritime towns 
and deprived them of every ally or subject along the whole 
Asiatic coast from Ionia to Pamphylia. Not satisfied with this, 
he fearlessly attacked their fleet, though much larger than his 
own. It lay anchored at the mouth of the river Eurymedon, 
whilst a land-army was encamped at a short distance on the 
shore. Notwithstanding the advantage of their position and the 
number of their ships, which amounted to at least three hundred 
and fifty, the naval force of the Persians was entirely defeated; 
no less than two hundred vessels fell into the power of the 
Athenians, and many others were destroyed. 

The sea fight was scarcely over, when Cimon, seeing his 
troops full of ardor and courage permitted them at their own 
request to land, and led them without delay against the enemy. 
The Persians resolutely waited their attack, and met the first 
onset with great firmness; but their efforts, as usual, proved 
* Plutarch, in Cimoii's Life. 



B . c. 473—449. GREEKS, PERSIANS.— ARTAXERXES. 147 

unavailing. Being obliged to give way, they broke their ranks, 
fled, and were pursued with terrible slaughter; many were made 
prisoners, and a considerable booty fell into the hands of the 
victorious Athenians. Cimon was not yet satisfied with this new 
success. Aware that eighty Phoenician vessels were approaching 
to join the Persian fleet, he again set sail, and went to meet 
them, before they had received any certain intelligence of what 
had happened. His success was complete: all the Phoenician 
ships were either sunk or taken, and nearly all of their soldiers 
perished (b. c. 470). 

Thus did Cimon, within hardly more than a day, gain a series 
of victories almost equal to those of Salamis and Plataea. .After 
these glorious achievements, he returned to Athens, where he 
employed himself in fortifying the harbor, and embellishing the 
town with the spoils taken from the enemy. The following 
year, he sailed towards the Hellespont and Thrace, and continued 
to signalize his courage by various exploits. Afterwards his vic- 
torious career was interrupted for a time by fresh dissensions in 
the Grecian states, and among the Athenians themselves. As 
there existed in Athens a strong political party opposed to Cimon, 
it acquired such power during his absence, and finally became so 
strong against him, that he was condemned to exile for ten years. 
But, before the expiration of that term, the Athenians perceived 
how prejudicial it was to their interests to be deprived of the 
services of such a man; they recalled him from his banishment, 
and Pericles, who had been the chief cause of it, was the first to 
propose a decree for his return. "With so much candor," ex- 
claims Plutarch, "were differences then managed! So moderate 
were the resentments of men, and so easily laid down, when the 
public good required ! Ambition itself, the strongest, the most 
active of all passions, yielded to the interests and necessities of 
their country."* 

No sooner was Cimon allowed to resume the course of his con- 
quests, than he went again with two hundred vessels in search 
of the enemy. Having first signally defeated a fleet of three 
hundred ships under the command of Artabazus, he landed his 
troops for a short time on the Cilician coast, and gained another 
memorable victory over an army of three hundred thousand men, 
commanded by Megabyzus, one of the ablest among the Persian 
generals. The island of Cyprus was also one of the theatres of 
Cimon's exploits. He intended to go still further, and even to 
shake the Persian empire to its very centre, when King Artax- 
erxes, dispirited by so many losses, and apprehensive of new 
* Plutarch, in Cimon. 



148 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part IV. 

dangers, resolved to put an end to so disastrous a war by a treaty 
of peace. It was concluded under the following conditions : 
1. That the Grecian cities in Asia should be acknowledged as 
free and independent states; 2. that no Persian vessel fitted out 
for war should navigate between the Black sea and the coasts of 
Pamphylia; 3. that no Persian commander with his troops 
should approach the Grecian seas within a three days' journey; 
and 4. that the Athenians should no longer attack any part of 
the dominions of Persia. These conditions were accepted and 
ratified under oath by the two parties, in the year B. c. 449. 

Such was the result, so glorious for the Athenians and their 
generals, of the struggle which they had to maintain against the 
mightiest empire in the world, under three successive monarchs. 
That struggle, since the burning of Sardis, had lasted fifty-one 
years. 

During the negotiation of this treaty Cimon died, either of 
sickness or of a wound which he had received at the siege of 
Citium in Cyprus. When he drew near his end, he commanded 
his officers to set out with the fleet immediately for Athens, and 
to conceal his death with the utmost care. The order was punc- 
tually executed, and the secret so well kept, that neither the 
enemy nor the allies had any suspicion of the event; and the 
whole fleet returned safe to Athens, still under the guidance and 
auspices of Cimon, although he had died thirty days before. 
Thus this great man, the greatest perhaps that Greece ever pro- 
duced, after having conferred on his country so many signal 
benefits during life, promoted its interests even after death, and 
left it in the height of glory and prosperity. 

DEFEAT OF THE CARTHAGINIANS IN SICILY.— b. c. 480. 

GREAT QUALITIES OF GELON, PRINCE AND SOVEREIGN OF SY- 
RACUSE. 

It has been already mentioned that Xerxes, in his earnest 
desire to subdue the Greeks, had entered into an alliance with 
the Carthaginians, and agreed with them that they should attack 
with all their forces the Grecian colonies in Sicily and Italy; 
whilst he, on his part, would march in person against Greece. 
The Carthaginians, who had already made great conquests not 
only in Africa, but also in other countries and in Sicily itself, 
and who were very desirous to obtain entire possession of this 
rich island, readily assented to the proposal of the Persian king. 
As they were determined to carry on the war upon a very exten- 
sive scale, so as to make it correspond to the efforts of their pow- 



b. c. 480. CARTHAGINIANS IN SICILY. 149 

erful ally, tliey spent three years in making adequate prepara- 
tions. Their land army amounted to not less than three hundred 
thousand men, and their fleet consisted of two thousand vessels. 

This immense force set out from Carthage and landed at Pa- 
lermo in Italy, under the conduct of Amilcar, a commander of 
great experience. This general after giving some rest to his 
troops, marched against Himera, a neighboring city, and laid 
siege to it. The governor of the place seeing it very closely 
pressed, despatched messengers to his son-in-law Gelon, who with- 
out the title of king exercised the principal authority in Syra- 
cuse ; Gelon readily obeyed the summons and hastened in per- 
son to the relief of Himera, at the head of fifty thousand infan- 
try and five thousand cavalry. His approach revived the hopes 
and courage of the besieged, who afterwards defended themselves 
with increased energy. 

Gelon was an able warrior and excelled in stratagems. Hav- 
ing intercepted a letter informing Amilcar of the speedy arrival 
of a certain auxiliary body of troops, he selected an equal num- 
ber from his own, whom he equipped in the manner described in 
the letter, and made them advance towards the camp of the be- 
siegers at the time designated. These pretended auxiliaries be- 
ing received as allies by an unsuspecting enemy, slew the Car- 
thaginian general and fired his vessels. At the same moment 
Gelon attacked the camp with all his forces. The Carthaginians 
at first resisted with great valor ; but soon hearing of the death 
of their leader, and seeing their whole fleet in a blaze, they lost 
courage and fled. In the dreadful slaughter that ensued, one 
hundred and fifty thousand of their number were slain. The 
rest of their army having retired to a place where they were in 
want of every thing, could not make a long defence, and surren- 
dered at discretion. This memorable action took place on the 
same day with the battle of Thermopylae, according to some ) 
whilst others place it on the same day with that of Salamis.* 

The sad news of the entire defeat of the army threw Carthage 
into a state of alarm and confusion which cannot be expressed. 
The inhabitants imagined that the enemy was already at their 
gates. They immediately sent deputies to sue for peace, and 
Gelon, whose usual character was lenity, granted it on moderate 
terms. One of the conditions prescribed to the vanquished was, 
that they should cease to sacrifice their children to Saturn ; a 
circumstance which shows at the same time the superstitious 



* The first is the statement of Diodorus Siculus, b. xi ; and the se- 
cond is found in Herodotus, b. vii. 

13* 



150 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part IV. 

cruelty of the Carthaginians and the humanity of their con- 
queror. 

G-elon after this glorious victory returned to Syracuse, assem- 
bled the people and modestly gave an account of his whole con- 
duct, offering himself an easy victim to the justice of his citi- 
zens, if they judged that he had done any thing contrary to the 
public good or in any manner abused his authority. His dis- 
course was answered only by praises and marks of gratitude. 
As every one looked upon him as the deliverer and benefactor of 
the country, he was with unanimous consent proclaimed king. 
He showed himself more and more worthy of the flattering titles 
bestowed upon him, by acting more as a father than a sovereign, 
and never ceasing to exert himself for the happiness of his peo- 
ple. Unfortunately for Syracuse, his reign lasted only seven 
years. The sceptre after his death passed into the hands of his 
brothers Hiero and Thrasybulus, who reigned in succession, till 
the Syracusans, disgusted at the acts of oppression and tyranny 
committed by Thrasybulus, drove him from among them, and 
restored the democratic form of government (p. c. 460). 



THE ROMAN COMMONWEALTH: 

FROM THE INSTITUTION OF THE DICTATORSHIP TO THE EXPULSION OF 
THE DECEMVIRI. B. C. 498 449. 

ORIGIN OF THE OFFICE OF DICTATOR.— b. c. 498. 

The time had not yet come for the Romans to take any share, 
much less to act a prominent part, as they afterwards did, in the 
affairs of other nations. Their attention was sufficiently engaged 
at home in fighting the enemies of their liberty, repelling the 
frequent attacks of their jealous neighbors, and preventing their 
newly framed republic from falling into despotism or anarchy. 

From the beginning of the Roman commonwealth, there ex- 
isted various causes of dissension between the patricians and the 
plebeians, or the senate and the people. This state of things 
originated not only in the mutual apprehensions and jealousy of 
the two orders, but likewise in the vast disproportion between 
their respective fortunes j nearly all the wealth and land were in 
the hands of the patricians, whereas most of the plebeians suf- 
fered poverty and distress. Their misery was more and more 
aggravated by the accumulation of debts on the one side, and by 
usuries and oppressive measures on the other. Moreover, in a 
naturally rude and half-civilized nation, without the mild influ- 



b. c. 498—449. ROMAN COMMONWEALTH. 151 

ence of the true religion, measures were extremely severe against 
insolvent debtors, even against those whose insolvency was the 
effect of misfortune over which they had no control. The law 
or custom subjected them not merely to imprisonment, but even 
to torture and the lash. Avaricious creditors were not ashamed 
to avail themselves of these inhuman laws, and frequently put 
them in execution with merciless rigor. 

Treatment so revolting, especially in a republic, did not fail to 
exasperate the minds of the people. They indulged by degrees 
in complaints, expostulations, murmurs and threats ; and finally 
came to the determination, unless the senate should pass a decree 
for the abolition of their debts, not to take up arms for the de- 
fence of an imaginary commonwealth in which they had so much 
to suffer. 

The senators having assembled to deliberate on the matter, 
were much divided as to the manner of proceeding in so delicate 
a circumstance. To them, either of the two methods of rigor or 
leniency appeared pregnant with evil consequences : the one 
would still more exasperate the people, and the other would seem 
to patronize and encourage rebellion. In this perplexity they 
resolved, first, to suspend for the present the effect of the laws 
with regard to insolvent debtors j and secondly, to appoint a su- 
preme magistrate under the name of Dictator, whose authority 
should supersede every other authority in the nation, and from 
whose orders there should be no appeal. To prevent so great a 
power from degenerating into tyranny, it was to be conferred 
only for the space of six months. 

The first Roman ever raised to this exalted dignity was Titus 
Lartius, b. c. 498. He was eminently fitted for the critical cir- 
cumstances in which he found the state, namely, a civil feud to 
suppress and a foreign aggression to repel : by happily blending 
energy and firmness with wisdom and moderation, he succeeded 
in both attempts before the expiration of his term of office. He 
might have retained his power during the whole time for which 
he was elected ; but he voluntarily resigned it before the close 
of that period, thus giving an admirable example of modesty, 
which, to the great honor and credit of the Roman character, 
was faithfully imitated by subsequent dictators for nearly four 
centuries. 

Rome, having once experienced the beneficial result of this 
kind of magistracy, had frequently recourse to it in times of 
great and pressing dangers. It became towards the end of the 
republic an occasion of abuse, owing to the natural weakness of 
the human mind, by which the end of the best institutions may 



152 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part IV. 

be perverted. Still it is perfectly correct to say that the high 
office of dictator, generally intrusted to men of superior talents, 
wisdom and experience, rendered the most signal services to the 
commonwealth by insuring its internal tranquillity, and secur- 
ing its power and sometimes its very existence against foreign 



RISE OF THE PLEBEIAN TRIBUNES.— b. c. 493. 

The second Roman dictator was Aulus Posthumius, under 
whom was fought the decisive battle of Kegillus against the 
Latins. Shortly after him, fresh dissensions arose between the 
plebeians and patricians concerning the hitherto unsettled affair 
of insolvent debtors and their treatment. Both the army and 
the people, driven almost to desperation and finding themselves 
unaided by the senate, withdrew in great numbers from the city 
to a mountain three miles distant, and afterwards called the Sa- 
cred Mount. Here they established themselves in a fortified 
camp, and by their subsequent behaviour showed a fixed deter- 
mination never to return, until they should obtain a general 
abolition of those debts which exposed them to so many miseries 
and hardships. 

This conduct of the plebeian order gave considerable alarm to 
the consuls and all the senators; they sent ten deputies chosen 
from among themselves, to effect a reconciliation and the return 
of the people. The most illustrious of these deputies was 
Menenius Agrippa, a patrician so universally revered for his mo- 
deration and impartiality, that the insurgents themselves received 
him, as they also did his colleagues, with every demonstration 
of joy. He, on his part, endeavored to convince them of the 
necessity of concord in every government, and of the confidence 
which they ought to place in the good intentions of the senate. 
On this occasion, he proposed to them the ingenious well-known 
allegory of the members of the human body, when they refused 
to do any thing for the stomach, under the plea of its apparent 
inactivity, and by so doing undermined and ruined their own 
strength.* 

The application of this allegory to the circumstance which had 
called it forth was a very natural one, and the people felt its 
force without any difficulty. They were still more pleased when 
the deputies, in the name of the senate, declared the full ac- 
quittal of poor insolvent debtors and the abolition of their debts. 
They now readily prepared to return to the city; still, in order 
* See Livy, b. ii, ch. 32. 



b. c. 498—449. ROMAN COMMONWEALTH. 153 

to prevent the recurrence of similar evils, they asked and ob- 
tained, before leaving their camp, the appointment of a new class 
of officers to be annually chosen from the plebeian order, with 
authority to defend the interests of the people, not only against 
private citizens, but even, if necessary, against the senate and 
the first magistrates of the republic. Such was the origin of !;he 
Plebeian Tribunes. 

This institution might have been, if kept within due bounds, 
very beneficial to the commonwealth ; but, as the tribunes were 
frequently persons of a restless, factious and daring spirit, it soon 
became a source of new dissensions. Their power, at first limited 
in its objects, continually sought to extend its sphere, produced 
a variety of important changes in the government, and by the 
violent strifes which they occasioned, greatly contributed to its 
entire overthrow. 

The number of these officers, originally five, was afterwards 
increased to ten. Two other annual magistrates were appointed, 
called Ediles, to take charge, under the tribunes, of the markets, 
provisions, public buildings and public shows. 



BANISHMENT OF MARCIUS CORIOLANUS.— b. c. 489. 

The first important trial which the plebeian tribunes made of 
their power, was against an illustrious citizen called Marcius, and 
surnamed Goriolanus. He belonged to a patrician family in 
Rome, and was universally esteemed for his moral conduct, his 
courage and his military abilities. The capture of Corioli, a 
Volscian city, was principally due to the exertions of his brilliant 
valor ; afterwards, going forward to fight a hostile army sent to 
the relief of the town, he had forced victory to declare in favor 
of the Romans. It was from this great achievement that he de- 
rived the surname of Coriolanus ; all admired his bravery, his 
disinterestedness, and, above all, his magnanimity, the source of 
so many noble actions. 

Unfortunately, these qualities of Marcius, for want of proper 
direction, often degenerated into haughtiness and obstinacy. He 
did not possess that full command of his temper so peculiarly 
becoming among a free people, nor that patience and moderation 
so necessary in the management of public affairs. In the new 
subjects of discussion that arose in the senate concerning the 
plebeians, he warmly defended the authority of the former 
against the claims of the latter, and occasionally used harsh ex- 
pressions, calculated to wound and irritate the public feeling. 



151 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part IV. 

His opposition to the plebeian interest so much exasperated the 
tribunes and their partisans, that, in a general assembly of the 
people, they had him sentenced to perpetual exile. 

Coriolanus received his condemnation with great apparent 
firmness, and left the city without uttering the least murmur or 
complaint, yet full of rancor, and meditating signal vengeance 
against his country. In effect, he soon after reappeared at the 
head of a powerful army of Volsci, whom he had induced to 
avenge with him their common injuries. Having, as he ad- 
vanced, taken a multitude of towns and laid waste the neighbor- 
ing territory, he took a position only five miles from Rome. The 
city was filled with instant consternation, especially among the 
plebeians at the approach of their irritated enemy, and the con- 
sternation was more and more increased by the fact that, not- 
withstanding the repeated offers made by the deputies of the 
senate, he rejected every proposal of reconciliation. The minds 
of the people were quite dejected; it seemed as if the courage 
of the Romans had passed from them, together with Coriolanus, 
into the camp of their enemies. 

At this critical juncture, Rome owed her deliverance to the 
mother of Coriolanus. This generous lady, accompanied by 
many other noble matrons, went to meet her son, who had al- 
ways entertained for her the most respectful and tender regard. 
She spoke so feelingly to him, and so touched his heart, that he 
exclaimed, "Dear mother, you have conquered me. Your vic- 
tory saves Rome, but it is ruinous to your son." He withdrew 
his troops from the Roman territory; but, although he gave good 
explanatory reasons of his conduct, and satisfied many of the 
Volsci, yet he did not escape the blame or envy of others, and 
was, according to Plutarch, shortly after put to death through 
the intrigues of his colleague Attius Tullius.* Livy, on the 
contrary, seems inclined to think, from the testimony of a very 
ancient author, that he lived to an advanced age in his exile. f 

In either case, Coriolanus was a sad example of the faults and 
calamities into which even great men may fall. A victim of the 
ingratitude of his fellow-citizens, much of his misfortune was a 
consequence of his obstinacy; and he became the terror of his 
country, whilst he might, by using greater moderation, have con- 
tinued its best support and most illustrious ornament. 

* Plutarch, in Marcium Coriol. f Livy, b. ii, c. 40. 



b. c. 498—449. ROMAN COMMONWEALTH. 155 



THE AGRARIAN LAW.— AMBITION AND PUNISHMENT OF 
SPURIUS CASSIUS.— b. c. 486—483. 

The concord produced among the various orders of the state 
by the approach of Coriolanus and his army, disappeared with 
the transient alarm in which it had originated. As soon as the 
external enemy withdrew, the political parties within resumed 
their disputes. The present subject of debate was one of the most 
important that ever had engrossed their attention, and at the 
same time the most popular of all propositions, that is, the equal 
partition of land among the citizens, a proposition known by the 
name of the Agrarian law. 

Whilst the Romans were making their first conquests and ac- 
quisitions of territory, the profits arising from them were under- 
stood to be for the state and for the people. A portion of the 
newly acquired territory was leased or sold, to indemnify the 
public treasury for the expenses incurred during the war ; other 
portions were distributed among the citizens, especially those who 
had not the means to support their families. But, during a cer- 
tain length of time, the republic had either made few acquisitions 
of this sort, or had* connived at their occupation or purchase by 
powerful and wealthy individuals. 

The first complaints on this subject came not, as might be na- 
turally supposed, from the plebeian tribunes, but from the consul 
Spurius Cassius. This man, already in high favor with the po- 
pular party, continued, by all possible means, to court the affec- 
tion of the inferior class, and is said to have aimed at an impro- 
per and dangerous influence in the state. He affected great zeal 
for the rights of the people, as well as indignation against their 
opponents ; and complained, in particular, of the improper use 
lately made of the conquered lands, which were suffered to fall 
into the hands of persons already too wealthy. He at length 
moved that a new division of them should be made in behalf of 
the indigent citizens. 

This proposal was, at first, extremely agreeable to the people. 
On the other hand, the senate and the patricians in general were 
greatly alarmed, either because they saw their own interest at 
stake, or because they feared the evil consequences of the Agra- 
rian law with regard to the state at large, which it might throw 
into great confusion. They, therefore, applied with great earn- 
estness to devise expedients for the defeat or suspension of the 
measure proposed by Cassius; ancTthe consul himself contributed, 
more than any one, to ruin his cause, by the very means that he 
adopted to insure its success. 



156 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part IV. 

He alarmed the rich with the prospect of danger to their pro- 
perty, and at the same time filled all the citizens with serious 
apprehensions for their civil rights, by proposing that the Latins 
and Hernici, allies of Rome, should enjoy the same privileges 
with the Romans and share with them in the new division of the 
lands. Virginius, the other consul, strongly opposed this motion 
of his colleague, and the city for the present was saved from the 
intrusion of strangers. The attempt moreover gave great offence 
to the people, as well as to the senate. The unhappy author of 
it, in order to regain the favor of his party, proposed a resolution 
to refund out of the public treasury whatever had been formerly 
paid by necessitous persons, when buying corn at the public 
granaries in time of famine. This proposal also was interpreted 
to his prejudice, and placed him under a very strong suspicion 
that he meant, with the aid of aliens and of indigent citizens, to 
usurp the government: on this ground, all parties in the state 
combined against him, and he was condemned to death as guilty 
of treason. 

Thus perished the first projector of the famous Agrarian law. 
The measure failed as to its intended effect; still the project 
itself remained to be a lasting source of dissension in the republic, 
and, by being renewed at intervals, served as an instrument in 
the hands of ambitious and designing men to court popular 
favor. On the part of the lower classes it became a subject of 
reiterated demands; nor could the senate succeed in diverting 
them from their purpose, otherwise than by occupying them 
almost constantly in foreign wars. 

GENEROSITY AND PATRIOTISM OF THE FABIAN FAMILY, 
u. c. 483—477. 

Occasions for the wars above mentioned were frequent. 
Nearly the whole of this period was one continued series of hos- 
tilities against the Etrurians, the JEqui, the Volsci, and other 
neighboring tribes, the perpetual foes of Rome. The Romans, 
although occasionally defeated, were commonly victorious, and 
derived from those incessant wars the twofold advantage of se- 
curing their power and of improving themselves more and more 
in military science. 

Of all the illustrious families of Rome, none at this period 
acquired greater honor and rendered more signal service than the 
Fabian family. During several jenrs in succession, some one of 
its members was appointed to the consular dignity and to the 
command of the troops; and all of them, by their conduct and 



B. c. 498—449. ROMAN COMMONWEALTH. 157 

zeal, showed themselves worthy of the confidence placed in their 
abilities. Yet success and popular affection did not always accom- 
pany their exertions for the public good. On one occasion in 
particular, the consul Quintus Fabius, instead of distributing 
among his soldiers the spoils taken from the enemy, caused the 
whole booty to be sold and the proceeds to be added to the 
publiG fund; this measure occasioned great dissatisfaction in the 
army. Hence, in a subsequent encounter with the JEqui, most 
of the troops commanded by one of the Fabii refused to do their 
duty, and, instead of fighting, withdrew from the field, not to 
procure by an easy victory a triumph for their general. 

The Etrurians, aware of the dissensions which prevailed among 
the Romans, thought it a favorable opportunity to crush the 
power of Rome. All Etruria flew to arms; a numerous and 
gallant army was quickly formed, and occupied a position near 
the strong city of Veii. The Roman consuls, equally careful to 
select an advantageous post, stationed their troops on two hills 
at a short distance from the enemy. ' 

These consuls were Cneius Manlius and Marcus Fabius. The 
latter had with him, in the capacity of lieutenants, his two bro- 
thers Quintus and Cseso, both of whom had also enjoyed consular 
honors. So many able leaders, although conscious of the superior 
force of the Etrurians, had less apprehension from that source 
than on account of the discontent of their own soldiers. The 
remembrance of what had taken place in the last campaign, viz. 
the refusal of the army to fight, was for them the cause of great 
uneasiness. They therefore determined to avoid any thing like 
a battle, and to remain within their intrenchments, in the hope 
that delay and shame might work a salutary change in the 
minds of the soldiery. The case happened- exactly as they had 
expected. 

The Etrurians, perceiving that the Romans remained inactive 
in their camp, were emboldened to approach and to insult them 
by the most bitter sarcasms; they called the generals cowards, 
and their followers mere women. These taunts, repeated every 
day with increased insolence, although they did not move the 
consuls, pierced the soldiers to the quick. They first sent their 
officers, and then went themselves in great numbers from all 
parts of the camp, loudly requesting permission to fight without 
delay.* Still the consuls pretended to hesitate, feigning reluc- 
tance. !\.t last Marcus Fabius, turning to his colleague, said in 

* Totis castris unclique ad consules curritur ; oranes clamoribus 

agunt poscunt pugnani, postulant \\t sigimni detur. — Livy, b. ii, 

c. 45. 

14 



158 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part IV. 

an audible voice : "I know very well that these soldiers are able 
to conquer the enemy; but they have given me great reason to 
doubt whether they are willing to do so. Hence, I am resolved 
not to give the signal, till they have all sworn that they will 
return victorious. They once deceived a consul; they shall not 
deceive the gods." At these words, a brave officer called Flavo- 
leius, who was the first captain of a legion, and one too among 
the most eager in asking leave to fight, came forward, and rais- 
ing his naked sword, cried out: " Marcus Fabius, I pledge my- 
self to return victorious from the combat; may I miserably 
perish, if my promise is vain !" The other officers and the whole 
army took the same oath. 

The consuls, now satisfied and filled with confidence, imme- 
diately drew up their legions in battle-array. Such was the ardor 
of the troops, that the Etrurians, surprised at this movement, 
had scarcely time to prepare for the conflict; yet, full of courage 
themselves, they offered a resistance equal to the fury of the 
onset. The two parties were alternately conquerors and con- 
quered, and the slaughter, on each side, was dreadful. The 
death of Manlius and of Quintus Fabius, his colleague's brother, 
together with the momentary occupation of their camp by the 
enemy, was about to cause the defeat of the Romans. But the 
other consul, by his presence of mind, and his wonderful activity 
that carried him to every place in which the danger was most 
pressing, succeeded in rendering the combat everywhere favor- 
able to his party. At last, the Romans, by renewed efforts, 
gained a signal and complete, though dearly bought, victory. 

They had never fought so considerable a battle, whether we 
consider its duration and the events which occurred in it, or the 
number of the combatants. The Roman army amounted to 
forty or fifty thousand, the Etrurian army was still more 
numerous; the advantage passed five or six times from one side 
to the other, and the fight, which commenced before noon, did 
not terminate till after sunset, when the remnants of the van- 
quished withdrew from the field. 

Triumphal honors were decreed to the consul Fabius; but he 
modestly declined them, in consequence of the death of Manlius, 
his colleague, and of his brother Quintus. This magnanimous 
refusal did him as much honor as the victory itself. Among the 
subordinate leaders, the prize of valor was awarded, in the first 
place, to Casso Fabius, another Brother of the consul; next, to 
Siccius, who had recovered the Roman camp from its daring in- 
vaders; and, in the third place, to the brave Flavoleius, both on 



B.C. 498— 449. ROMAN COMMONWEALTH. 159 

account of his previous noble example, and of his determined 
courage during the conflict. 

As soon as the victorious army returned to Rome, the wounded 
soldiers were, by the consul's direction, quartered in the houses 
of the senators, where they received the attention which their 
situation demanded. Most of them had been placed in the 
dwellings of the Fabian family, and nowhere were they treated 
with so much kindness. This generous conduct of the Fabii, 
joined with their heroism on the field of battle, for ever recon- 
ciled to them the minds and affections of the people. 

Their magnanimity still more strikingly appeared in the ensu- 
ing years, and increased in the highest degree the public esteem 
and admiration in their behalf. The late victory, however 
splendid, had not put an end to hostilities; on the contrary, the 
Romans had now to sustain the war against the iEqui, the 
Volsci, and the Veientes, whom the other parts of Etruria were 
ready to assist. The coincidence of these wars created very great 
difficulty in the state. The public treasury was exhausted, and 
it seemed almost impossible to provide armies sufficient to repel 
so many enemies at once. In this emergency, the Fabii offered 
to bear the whole charge, both pecuniary and personal, of the 
war against the Veientes. As may be easily conjectured, their 
offer was accepted by the senate and the people with equal readi- 
ness and gratitude; all extolled them to the sky, especially when 
on the following day they set out, to the number of three hun- 
dred and six, on their perilous expedition. It was indeed a 
spectacle worthy of unqualified admiration, to behold these 
generous warriors, all belonging to the same family, all patri- 
cians, all worthy of the rank of generals,* willingly sacrificing 
every domestic comfort, every private consideration, and their 
own persons, for the honor and safety of the republic. Rome 
itself never saw an army so small, and yet so illustrious and so 
justly celebrated.") - 

This heroic band, having arrived near the small river Cremera, 
not far from Veii, built a fortress on a steep mountain, sur- 
rounded it with a double ditch, and flanked it with towers. 
From that fort, they often issued forth like lions to invade the 
Veian territory, and by carrying off a great booty in their excur- 
sions, kept the country in constant alarm. The enemy no longer 
ventured to encounter them in the open field, and remained shirt 



* E queis dux fieri quilibet aptus erat. — Ovid. Fast, ii, I. 200. 
f Nunquam exercitus, neque minor numero, neque clarior fama et 
admivatione honiinum, per urbem incessit. — Livy, b. ii, c. 49. 



160 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part IV. 

up within the walls of their cities. This lasted for the space of 
about two years. 

The Fabii, elated with success, daily made new progress, and 
inflicted fresh losses on their foes ; but their too great confidence 
was at last the cause of their ruin, as the enemy skilfully made 
use of it to draw them into a snare. Having concealed troops 
in hilly places, they drove a large number of cattle to the plain 
below. The Fabii advanced from their fortress, as usual^ with 
full security, and, when they had reached the spot just mentioned, 
prepared to seize the valuable prey that offered itself to their 
view. At this moment, there were heard loud cries, followed in 
every direction by a shower of darts; then, the Etrurian troops 
lying in ambush suddenly rushed on the incautious invaders, and 
surrounded them on all sides. 

There was no possibility to avoid the unequal contest, nor 
hope of escape. Nothing could be done but to oppose undaunted 
bravery to overwhelming multitudes. This was actually done ; 
the Fabii fought like lions, and forming themselves into a close 
column in the shape of a wedge, forced their way towards the 
declivity of a neighboring hill, where they could defend them-, 
selves with greater advantage. Here indeed they not only re- 
sisted, but even repelled for a time and overthrew the assailants. 
Still, being soon attacked in the rear by a body of Veientes who 
had reached the summit of the hill, they all fell, fighting to their 
last breath, and not until they had made immense havoc among 
the ranks of the enemy. 

It thus happened that the engagement near Cremera was,, in 
almost every respect, a repetition of the famous combat at Ther- 
mopylae. " The three hundred and six Fabii, like the three hun- 
dred Spartans whose contemporaries they were, gave the most 
admirable example of devotedness to the public good, and died 
together on the field of battle in defence of their country (b. c. 
480—477). 

It is said that only one young man of this illustrious family 
survived; this was Q. Fabius Vibulanus, afterwards consul. The 
circumstance appears to many critics very improbable, na}^ 
almost incredible. It is however certain that Fabius Vibulanus 
was the direct ancestor of all the great men bearing the name of 
Fabius, who afterwards distinguished themselves in the service 
of the republic. 

The unexpected loss of so many heroes deeply afflicted the 
Roman people; the day of their death was placed in the number 
of those which the superstition of that age considered as inauspi- 
cious and fatal. As to the fortress of Cremera, deprived of its 



b. o. 498—410, ROMAN COMMONWEALTH 161 

defenders, it became an easy conquest for the enemy. More- 
over, the Etrurians won another victory over the army com- 
manded by the consul Menenius, and, pursuing their advantage, 
advanced nearly to the walls of Rome. But no later than the 
ensuing year, their progress was checked, and their invasion 
repelled by two other consuls, Virginius and Servilius. 

DICTATORSHIP OF QUINTIUS CINCINNATUS.— b. c. 458. 

On a subsequent occasion during a war against the iEqui, the 
consul Minucius entangled himself with his troops in a narrow 
defile, where he was immediately hemmed in on every side by 
the enemy. He endeavored in vain to break through their 
ranks, and to open for his legions an egress from this perilous 
pass: being driven back with considerable loss, he was obliged 
to re-enter his camp under every disadvantage for the present, 
with the most disheartening prospect for the future. Gracchus, 
the general of the iEqui, lost no time in surrounding the Romans 
with a ditch and palisade, and he seemed to entertain no doubt 
but that he would soon be able to compel them by famine to lay 
down their arms and surrender at discretion. 

The news of this melancholy event spread terror and dismay 
in Rome. It was deemed necessary, as was usual in all great 
and urgent perils of the state, to appoint a dictator without delay; 
the choice fell upon Quintius Cincinnatus. This celebrated man, 
one of the most distinguished members of the senate, formerly 
consul and now the only hope of the republic, lived on a farm of 
about four acres, which he cultivated with his own hands, and 
the produce of which sufficed for his support. 

The deputies of the senate found him actually occupied in 
ploughing his field, and covered with dust and sweat. Saluting 
him dictator, they invested him with the insignia of that high 
dignity. He set out immediately for Rome, without manifesting 
any alteration in his accustomed gravity and modesty, and 
rather expressing regret that his field would not be tilled that 
year. 

His first care, on entering the city, was to harangue the peo- 
ple in order to revive their courage; the following day, he mus- 
tered a sufficient number of troops and began his march without 
losing a moment. Having reached the enemy's camp during the 
night, he attacked it at the dawn of day with such order and 
resolution, that the iEqui, finding themselves pressed by two 
Roman armies and unable to stand the attack, were soon com- 
pelled to ask for quarter. It was granted them on the humiliat- 

14* 



102 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part IV. 

ing condition of passing under the yoke,* and of giving up one 
of their cities to the Tusci, the faithful allies of the Romans. 
They did so, and the campaign was ended. 

Cincinnatus, having thus by a single blow defeated the iEqui 
and rescued a Roman army from their grasp, made a solemn 
entry into Rome, accompanied by his victorious troops equally 
decked with laurels and enriched with booty. He might by law 
have held the dictatorial power for six months; but he voluntarily 
resigned it at the end of sixteen days, and returned to his farm 
more satisfied with honorable poverty than the rich usually are 
with all their treasures. 

Such modesty, frugality and attachment to a rural life were 
not rare among the ancient Romans. The sequel of their his- 
tory will furnish us with several instances of these virtues, 
neither less remarkable nor less praiseworthy than that of Cin- 
cinnatus. 

THE LAWS OF THE TWELVE TABLES.— TYRANNY AND EXPUL- 
SION OF THE DECEMVIRI.— b. c. 452—449. 

Rome had already existed for three hundred years without any 
settled code of jurisprudence. Differences among the citizens 
were adjusted by the chief magistrates, either according to 
ancient custom and the rules laid down by a few early statutes 
scarcely known to the plebeians, or by an appeal to the principles 
of natural equity. Hence there was no regular and uniform mode 
of administering justice; the rectitude of the decisions depended 
almost entirely on the individual integrity and learning of the 
judges. To obviate the many inconveniences that resulted or 
might result from this arbitrary state of things, three deputies 
were sent to Greece for the purpose of collecting from the Gre- 
cian laws, especially those of Solon, whatever they might deem 
best and most beneficial for the Roman people. 

Upon the return of these deputies (b. c. 452), ten commissaries 
were appointed, under the name of Decemviri, to draw up a regu- 
lar code of laws, conformably to which judgments should be 
passed in future. All the power of the consular and even of the 
dictatorial dignity was given to these commissaries for one year. 

* The yoke consisted of two javelins fixed perpendicularly in the 
ground, at a short distance from each other, and a third one placed 
transversally on the other two. The vanquished who, in order to save 
their lives and their liberty, submitted to the above condition, were 
made to pass, the one after the other, between these javelins, in pre- 
sence of the victorious army. 



b. c. 498—449. ROMAN COMMONWEALTH. 163 

Their decisions during that period were to be without appeal, 
and every other magistracy, even that of the tribunes and con- 
suls, was to be suspended. 

The decemviri, during the first term of their office, fully 
answered the expectations of the public. By their activity and 
zeal, a body of laws, called the Laics of the Twelve Tables (on 
account of their being engraven on so many tables or plates), 
was published in a clear and concise form, and received the 
sanction of both the senate and the people. The conduct of the 
legislators was also characterized by moderation and equity, and 
gave universal satisfaction. But the scene was completely 
changed, when, under the plausible pretence of concluding the 
work so happily begun, a second election took place, to continue 
the same kind of magistracy for another year. Nay, the new 
decemviri, not satisfied with the term of their commission, re- 
tained the sovereign power even after this term had elapsed: 
Borne again beheld all the excesses of despotism and tyranny 
that had disgraced the reign of Tarquin the proud, such as confis- 
cation of property, violence, tortures and death. All the citizens 
trembled for their safety. There were no more legal assemblies 
of the senate and the people j no one ventured to raise his voice 
in favor of public liberty. In a word, the situation of the com- 
monwealth seemed desperate, when two infamous attempts, 
similar to those which had led to the downfall of the Tarquins, 
occasioned the overthrow of the ten new tyrants. 

There was at that time a plebeian officer named Siccius Den- 
tatus, well known to every one both in the city and in the army, 
and equally celebrated for his valor and greatness of soul. He 
had served during forty years, had been in one hundred and 
twenty battles, had received forty-five wounds, and, besides 
being enriched with innumerable spoils of every description, had 
been honored with twenty-six military rewards. His influence 
with the troops gave great weight to all his words. As he spoke 
his mind freely against the decemviri, they singled him out, 
more than any other, for their hatred and vengeance; and pre- 
tending to invest him with an honorable commission abroad, 
they caused him to be attacked in a lonely place by a body of 
soldiers, or rather satellites attached to their interests. 

The intrepid veteran, seeing their wicked design, leaned against 
a rock to avoid an attack from behind, and in this position de- 
fended himself with such vigor that he killed several of the 
assailants, wounded others, and so terrified the rest, that not one 
ventured within his reach. Then withdrawing to a short dis- 
tance, they changed their mode of attack, and overwhelmed him 



1(34 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part IV. 

with a shower of darts, javelins and stones. In this manner the 
bravest man of his age, who had come out of so many combats 
unhurt and victorious, perished miserably by the hands of vile 
assassins. 

The murder committed in the person of Siccius Dentatus con- 
siderably increased the exasperation already existing in the 
public mind against the decemviri. Another equally unmerited 
and lamentable death which occurred in Rome, carried the 
detestation of their tyranny to the highest pitch, and gave the 
signal for the destruction of their power and government. 

Appius Claudius, the first among them, had conceived a crimi- 
nal affection for a young maiden called Virginia, the daughter 
of Virginius, an honest and high-spirited plebeian. Not being 
able to seduce her from her duty, he attempted, even publicly, 
to have her seized by force as a slave. Virginius, seeing no 
means left to save the honor and liberty of his unfortunate 
daughter, plunged a knife into her bosom, and instantly, with 
the bloody weapon still in his hand, fled for shelter to the army. 

This disastrous event filled both the citizens and the troops 
with renewed indignation and horror against the decemviri. 
Almost instantaneously they found their party universally 
abandoned. What they had so long and so tyrannically prac- 
tised against their fellow-citizens, was now justly turned against 
themselves: Appius and one of his colleagues perished in prison, 
whilst the other eight suffered banishment and the loss of their 
property. Eome, delivered from their oppression, re-established 
the consular and the tribunitial authority, together with the other 
magistracies of the republic (b. c. 449). 

This date brings us back to the precise point at which we left 
the history of the eastern nations ; to this it is now proper to 
return. 

PROSPERITY AND SPLENDOR OF ATHENS UNDER THE ADMI- 
NISTRATION OF PERICLES.— b. c. 449—431. 

The expulsion of the decemviri from Rome exactly coincides 
with the epoch at which Greece attained its greatest power and 
prosperity. The reader has already seen how much glory the 
Greeks won for themselves in their struggle against Persia j what 
splendid victories they achieved, and how honorable for their 
nation was the peace which they compelled the Persian monarch 
to conclude. Nor were they less renowned for the wisdom of 
their laws than for the brilliancy of their military achievements; 
for, as we have just before related, it was to them that the wisest 



B . c. 449—431. ATHENS UNDER PERICLES. 165 

and greatest people of Italy, the Romans, had recourse through 
a solemn deputation, to draw from Grecian jurisprudence the 
materials for the formation of their own laws and civil polity. 

Among the Grecian cities, Athens enjoyed unrivalled glory, 
wealth and splendor under the administration of Pericles. His 
influence and authority had increased since the death of Cimon, 
and he made use of the entire confidence reposed in him by the 
people,to render and maintain their city as powerful abroad, as he 
intended to make it conspicuous at home. Equally prudent and 
brave, he obtained great success in almost every undertaking. 
His favorite maxim, suggested by wisdom and humanity itself, 
was that the blood and lives of the soldiers should be spared as 
much as possible, and that a battle should never be hazarded 
except when victory was nearly certain. Hence the troops every- 
where followed him with full assurance. Under his conduct, the 
maritime cities of Peloponnesus, the Chersonesus of Thrace, all 
the seas, coasts and islands, from Cyprus to the kingdom of 
Pontus, over an extent of more than a thousand miles along the 
Asiatic shore, acknowledged the laws or were taught to respect 
the power of the Athenians. 

This extensive power was vested, as it were, in one man only, 
that is, in Pericles. He was, in fact, sole master of Athens and 
its dependencies. The revenue, the army and the navy, the 
islands and the sea, a vast territory peopled by barbarians as well 
as Greeks, and the possession of a kind of sovereignty cemented 
and strengthened by the obedience of conquered nations, the 
friendship of kings and the alliance of princes, were all at his 
command. 

The genius of Pericles was not unequal to so extensive an ad- 
ministration. His sagacity embraced every useful object. He 
sent out every year a fleet of sixty galleys, well provided at the 
public expense, and furnished for eight months ; by which means, 
he at the same time supported a large number of poor citizens, 
and prepared excellent seamen for the future service of the state. 
He also founded a multitude of colonies in various places, such 
as Chersonesus, Thrace, Andros, Naxos, and others. His chief 
motives in establishing these settlements were to remove from 
the city a large number of idle persons, ever ready to disturb the 
government ; to provide for the most necessitous ; and to keep 
the allies of Athens in awe, by placing colonies like so many 
garrisons in their neighborhood. The Romans used the same 
method, and it may be said that so wise a policy was one of the 
most effectual means employed by them to secure the public 
tranquillity. 



166 ANCIENT HISTORY". Part IV 

But of all the achievements of Pericles, none did him greater 
honor in the judgment of the people, and has excited more the 
admiration of posterity, than the wonderful disj)lay of talent and 
the magnificent works erected in Athens under his care or pro- 
tection. That city presented an uncommon reunion of men 
highly distinguished for their skill, industry and genius. During 
or about the same period with Pericles, Athens possessed the 
famous dramatical poets iEschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and 
Aristophanes; the masterly historians Herodotus, Thucydides 
and Xenophon ; the eloquent orators Isocrates and Lysias ; the 
eminent sculptors, architects and painters, Phidias, Callicrates, 
Apollodorus, Zeuxis and Parrhasius; the great philosophers 
Anaxagoras and Socrates, with his celebrated school, the nursery 
of so many other great men, Xenophon, Alcibiades, Plato, etc. ; 
Hippocrates, the ablest physician of antiquity; and Pericles 
himself, in whom were blended the characteristics of the admi- 
ral, the general and the statesman (though not in an equal de- 
gree with the illustrious Cimon), and of the excellent orator. 

History, it is true, presents us at different other periods with 
a happy reunion of remarkable men and memorable events; as, 
for instance, in the ages of Cassar Augustus, Leo the Tenth, and 
Louis the Fourteenth. But at these periods, talented persons 
had the ancients for their masters, their models and their guides; 
whereas the Greeks did not possess any such advantage. To the 
Greeks therefore belongs the exclusive merit of having, without 
previous examples and teaching, brought not only to light, but 
even to perfection, all the fine arts and every branch of polite 
literature. Hence, nothing in the history of the human mind 
better deserves our admiration than the multitude of wonders in 
point of science and skill achieved during the age of Pericles. 

What should appear still more surprising, is that so many 
productions of genius, so many master-pieces of architecture, 
sculpture, painting, etc. came together into existence in a city 
of no very considerable extent, and under one man's administra- 
tion. This is the remark of Plutarch in his life of Pericles. 
"Many edifices," says he, "each of which seems to have required 
the labor of several successive ages, were finished during the 
administration of one man. Works were raised of an astonish- 
ing magnitude, and inimitable beauty and execution, every 
architect striving to surpass the magnificence of the design with 
the elegance of the execution; but still, the most wonderful cir- 
cumstance was the speediness with which they were completed." 

" Celerity seldom produces any work of lasting importance, or 
exquisite beauty; while, on the contrary, the time which is ex- 



B. c. 449—431. ATHENS UNDER PERICLES. 167 

pended in labor, is recovered and repaid in the duration of the 
performance. Hence we have the more reason to wonder that 
the structures raised by Pericles should be built within so short 
a period, and yet, built for ages. For as each of them, as soon 
as finished, had the venerable air of antiquity, so, now that they 
are old" (that is, in the age of Plutarch, nearly six hundred 
years after Pericles), "they have the freshness of a modern 
building. A bloom is diffused over them, which preserves their 
aspect untarnished by time, as if they were animated with a spirit 
of perpetual youth and unfading elegance." 

So many admirable works cost, it is true, large sums of money, 
and the enemies of Pericles frequently took occasion to charge 
him with a waste of the public revenues. Pericles, on his part, 
was not slow in representing to the Athenians the reputation and 
glory which would accrue to them from these masterly produc- 
tions of the fine arts. One day, however, the clamors of his 
opponents were so great, that he publicly offered to take upon 
himself the expense which had been incurred, provided the new 
edifices should be inscribed with his name only, and not with 
that of the people of Athens. This proposal again turned the 
minds of the Athenians entirely in his favor. Whether they 
admired his magnanimity, or were ambitious to share the glory 
of such magnificent works, they cried out that he might spend 
in them as much as he pleased of the public treasure. 

It was thus that Pericles knew how to preserve his ascendency 
over an inconstant people, while, on the other hand, he knew 
how to give a vigorous impulse to every talent. There was, in- 
deed, among the several artists, incredible ardor and emulation, 
which made them use every effort to excel each other, and im- 
mortalize themselves by masterpieces of art. They were all 
under the immediate superintendence of the celebrated sculptor 
Phidias, whom the friendship of Pericles had invested with the 
direction of the public edifices, and of every thing intended for 
the embellishment of Athens.* 

* It was Phidias himself who cast the gold and ivory statue of Pallas 
or Minerva, so highly valued by the best judges of antiquity. This 
beaxttiful piece of genius was forty feet in height. The shield alone 
would have been enough to immortalize its author. A battle was 
represented upon it, and, among other highly finished details, Pericles 
appeared conspicuous in the attitude of a combatant; this part of the 
work was contrived with so much art, that the hand, which, in lifting 
up the spear x partly covered the face, seemed to be intended for the 
purpose of concealing the likeness, and yet it was very striking on both 
Bides. 

The excellence of this production excited envy against Phidias. He 



168 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part IV. 

Whilst the Athenians thus j>rospered in every attempt, a ter- 
rible storm was preparing against them from all sides. So much 
glory acquired by them in peace and war, partly at the expense 
and through the contributions of their allies, had been long pro- 
was accused of having diverted to his own profit a portion of the gold 
allotted for the execution of his design. Happily for him, he had, by 
the advice of Pericles, so managed his materials, that the gold with 
which the statue was overlaid, could easily be taken off and weighed. 
This being publicly done, sufficed to confound his accusers. 

Phidias was perfectly acquainted with the different rules of his art, 
as the following event fully testified. Both he and Alcamenes had 
been ordered to make, each of them, dfnother statue of Minerva, the 
chief goddess of the Athenians, in order that, upon due examination, 
the finer of the two statues might be chosen, to be placed on the summit 
of a lofty column. The performance of Alcamenes, being seen from a 
short distance, was quite beautiful, whereas that of Phidias appeared 
to be nothing else than a rough unfinished cast. The former was about 
to be preferred, when Phidias made the request that both of them should 
be fairly tried, by being placed at their proper intended height. At 
this time, the appearance was very different. All the delicacy of Alca- 
menes' work disappeared ; on the contrary, the Minerva of Phidias 
showed itself with such an air of grandeur, nobleness and majesty, as 
struck all the beholders with admiration. 

A still more celebrated work of this great artist, was the statue of 
the Olympic Jupiter. It was sixty feet high, and all made of ivory and 
gold; yet, the height, the size and the costly materials were but of 
secondary moment, when compared with the beauty and perfection of 
the workmanship. So admirable did it appear to all, that the Olympic 
Jupiter was reckoned among the seven wonders of the world, and, 
among all subsequent statuaries, none ever dared so much as to attempt 
an imitation of this prodigy. 

The art of painting, likewise, made immense progress during the age 
of Pericles. This is the more remarkable, as the Greek painters of old 
were unacquainted with the use of the green and blue colors, and con- 
tented themselves with four colors only, the white, black, yellow and 
red. Notwithstanding this deficiencj 7 , the genius of Apollodorus, 
Zeuxis and Parrhasius, not to mention Apelles and Protogenes who 
flourished a century later, produced paintings of surprising beauty. 
Apollodorus set the example by the finish of his coloring and the use 
of the clare-obscure. Zeuxis, his disciple, by using and improving the 
same method, not only equalled, but even surpassed his master ; still, 
Zeuxis himself met a successful rival in Parrhasius, as became manifest 
in the following instance. 

Both presented themselves on a solemn occasion, as candidates for 
the prize in painting. The former represented grapes in so natural a 
manner, that, when he exposed his work to public view, birds, deceived 
by the likeness, flew towards the painting, and picked at the grapes. 
Zeuxis, transported with joy, challenged his opponent to exhibit as 
masterly a performance as his own. Parrhasius produced a picture 
covered, to all appearance, with a thin veil: "Remove the veil," said 
Zeuxis, " that we may behold your masterpiece." But this apparent 



B . c . 449—431. ATHENS UNDER PERICLES. 169 

■yoking the resentment or envy of many among the Grecian states. 
Lacedaemon, in particular, could not see without jealousy the 
preponderance of Athens in Greece \ nor was Athens at all in- 
clined to lower and dissemble her lofty pretensions in behalf of 

veil was the painting itself. Zeuxis confessed that he was vanquished; 
"because," said he, "if I have been able to make birds take appear- 
ances for the reality, Parrhasius has produced the same effect on me 
who am a painter." 

Parrhasius peculiarly excelled in expressing the feelings and passions 
of the soul. This appeared, above all, in his representation of the 
Athenian people, where he succeeded in truthfully exhibiting them, on 
the one hand as kind, humane and compassionate ; on the other, as 
capricious, irascible and unjust; now, as proud and haughty, and then, 
as dejected and pusillanimous. Must not that man have been pos- 
sessed of the richest imagination and a vast inventive genius, who 
could express together in the same painting, so many different and 
even opposite features ? 

Yet Parrhasius himself was overcome in his turn by another cele- 
brated painter of that time, called Timanthes; this likewise happened 
in a public competition. The subject proposed was Ajax, that famous 
warrior of old, inflamed with fury because the arms of Achilles had 
been given by the Greeks to Ulysses, and not to himself. In this in- 
stance, the prize was awarded by a tribunal of competent judges to 
Timanthes. Parrhasius, less candid than Zeuxis and unwilling to ac- 
knowledge his defeat, endeavored to console himself with this pitiful 
remark : " Lo ! I pity the fate of my hero more than my own. Behold, 
he is conquered a second time, by one who is far inferior to him in 
merit!" 

As to the beauties of Grecian architecture, it would be impossible to 
give here an exact enumeration, much less an accurate description of 
them. Suffice it to say that they were of the highest order. It is 
universally admitted that the most perfect kinds of architecture are 
of Grecian origin, as appears from their very names, Doric, Ionian and 
Corinthian. Grandeur and solidity peculiarly belong to the Doric, 
elegance and refinement to the Ionian, magnificence and splendor of 
ornaments to the Corinthian order; whilst all three are remarkable 
for regularity in the design, harmony in the proportions, and wonder- 
ful taste in the details. The chief masterpieces of these three orders 
of architecture were the temple of Ceres in Eleusis, of Diana in Ephesus, 
and of the Olympic Jupiter, others say of the Parthenon or Minerva in 
Athens. 

We shall not dwell on the high degree of perfection to which poetry, 
history and eloquence were carried by the Greeks. The productions of 
their poets, orators and historians, (especially if to the names already 
mentioned we add Homer and Pindar," Demosthenes and JEschines, 
Polybius and Plutarch), are admired everywhere, and form the delight 
of all true scholars. It is no exaggeration to say that their literary 
merit has, in the long course of ages, soarcely ever been equalled, never 
surpassed. (See § vi of the Appendix.) 

The conclusion then forces itself upon us, that the age of Pericles 
stands unrivalled in the annals of mankind. Masterly performances 

K> 



170 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part IV. 

Sparta. Pericles himself, with perhaps too much obstinacy on 
some points of debate, was careful to maintain his fellow-citizens 
in that disposition. A variety of fresh incidents or enterprises 
on the one side, and expostulations on the other, daily contributed 
to increase the animosity of the two parties, till it finally broke 
into an open rupture. It thus happened that the leading states 
of Greece were prompted to turn against each other the weapons 
which they had so gloriously wielded together against the bar- 
barians. 

PELOPONNESIAN WAR.*— b. c. 431—404. 

The war between Athens and Sparta, commonly called the 
Peloponnesian war, divided the Grecian cities and states into two 
hostile parties of nearly equal strength. There were on the side 
of Lacedaemon, the Megarians, Phocians, Locrians, Boeotians, 
Thebans, Corinthians and the whole of Peloponnesus, except 
Argos and Achaia, which remained neutral, at least for a time. 
Athens was supported by the Platseans, Acarnanians, Corcyreans, 
Ionians, Thracians, the country near the Hellespont, and most 
of the iEgaean islands. The forces of the latter consisted of 
thirty-two thousand troops, and a powerful fleet of three hundred 

of various sorts may have been produced in other ages and countries, 
but it should always be borne in mind, that the Greeks led the way, 
and contributed, by their example, to form other eminent writers and 
artists ; whilst they themselves had no predecessors to follow, but were 
indebted, for the excellency of their productions, not to imitation, but 
to their own refined taste and inventive genius. 

Even our boasted nineteenth century, so proud of its light and civili- 
zation, must bow in acknowledgment of Grecian superiority with regard 
to the points in question. "We moderns, it is true, greatly excel the 
ancients in money-making industry and commercial skill, as well as in 
mechanical arts and natural sciences, the immense progress of which 
cannotbe denied. Nor is it very surprising that men of later ages, profiting 
by the experience and discoveries of the past, and having, besides, 
greater resources, more abundant means, and a wider sphere of action, 
should be more advanced, in many things, than those who preceded 
them by upwards of two thousand years. With regard to the fine arts 
and polite literature, let the ancients, especially the Greeks, be still 
allowed the laurels of victory. We may be their superiors in spirit of 
enterprise ; but for refined taste and productions of natural genius, 
they certainly bear the palm. 

* The particulars of this famous war are taken from the contem- 
porary historians, Thucydides and Xenophon ; also from Cornelius 
Nepos, in Alcibiad., and Plutarch, in his lives of Pericles, Nicias, Alci- 
biades and Lysander. Among modern authors, Rollin's Histoire Anci- 
enne, vol. iii, iv, and Gerard, Legons de V Histoire, vol. vii, letter 52, have 
been found the most useful. 



B c . 431—404. PELOPONNESIAN WAR. 171 

vessels. The Lacedaemonians bad a much smaller number of 
ships; but their land army, besides being composed of choice 
warriors, was nearly double that of their opponents. The first 
hostilities in this unnatural war proceeded from the Thebans, 
who attacked Plataea, and took it by surprise, but were very soon 
expelled with considerable loss. Shortly after, the province of 
Attica was invaded and laid waste by Archidamus, king of 
Lacedaemon, at the head of sixty thousand men. The Athenians, 
by the advice of Pericles, carefully avoided every pitched battle 
against so superior a force, and kept themselves shut up within 
the walls of their city. In return, their fleet, having sailed 
towards Peloponnesus, infested a large tract of country along the 
coasts, took several fortresses or cities, sacked the small towns 
and villages, and thus amply retaliated the depredations com- 
mitted in Attica. 

The following year was marked by similar events, the inva- 
sion and devastation of Attica by the Lacedaemonians, and a 
second descent of the Athenians on the maritime districts of 
Peloponnesus. This last expedition was headed by Pericles in 
person. When the whole fleet was in readiness, and he himself 
in his own galley preparing to set sail, there happened an eclipse 
of the sun. The sudden darkness occasioned by it was looked 
upon as an unfavorable omen, and threw every one into the 
greatest consternation. Pericles, observing that the pilot was 
much astonished and perplexed, took his cloak, and covering the 
man's eyes with it, asked him whether he found any thing ter- 
rible in that action, or considered it as a presage of evil. The 
pilot answered in the negative. "Then," said Pericles, " where 
is the difference in the two circumstances, except that some 
object larger than my cloak causes the eclipse V There is every 
reason to believe that the apprehensions of the Athenians were 
removed, and their hopes revived, since this expedition, although 
less brilliant than the former, was generally successful. 

The great man, who held with such skill the reins of govern- 
ment, endeavored in another way to animate the courage and 
confidence of his people. There existed among the Athenians a 
very laudable custom in reference to those who fell in war; at 
the end of an expedition, they collected, as far as possible, the 
mortal remains of the dead, and carried them to Athens, where 
a solemn ceremony took place, and splendid obsequies were cele- 
brated in their honor. This was done at the beginning of the 
Peloponnesian war with the usual solemnity, and Pericles was 
charged to deliver the funeral oration of the deceased heroes. 
He performed his task with an eloquence worthy of his high 



172 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part IV. 

reputation. In a discourse equally remarkable for beauty of 
thought, loftiness of sentiments and noble simplicity of style, he 
admirably described the glory of the Athenian republic j and, 
by happily blending with it the glory and praise of the brave 
soldiers who had fought and died for its defence, kindled m his 
audience an ardent desire to become their imitators. 

The peroration of that admirable discourse makes us acquainted 
with another trait highly honorable to the Athenians, and worthy 
of a sensible, humane and generous nation. They did not con- 
fine their gratitude to empty display and useless tears in behalf 
of the heroic defenders of their country, but extended it to their 
destitute children, whom they supported at the expense of the 
government. The effects of this generosity were felt, not only by 
private citizens, but by the whole state; for, as Pericles himself 
justly observed, great and virtuous men most abound where 
merit is best rewarded. 

But the Athenians had now to suffer a still more severe 
scourge than the devastation of war. A pestilence had just 
broken out both in their city and among their troops. This 
terrible plague, before reaching Athens, had already exercised 
its fury in several other countries, and particularly in the Per- 
sian dominions. Its violence baffled every effort to stop its pro- 
gress; the strongest constitutions were unable to withstand the 
attacks of the disease, and the greatest care or skill of the physi- 
cians was but a feeble help to those who were infected. The 
streets, the dwellings, the temples, were tilled with the dead and 
dying, and every part of the city exhibited a dreadful image of 
destruction, with scarcely any remedy for the present or hope for 
the future. 

In this trying circumstance, the celebrated physician Hippo- 
crates, a native of the island of Cos, displayed his talent and his 
disinterested zeal in behalf of the unfortunate Athenians. Dis- 
daining the splendid offers and promises of the king of Persia, he 
devoted himself, with several of his disciples, to the service of 
the sick in Athens and its neighborhood; nor did he leave the 
city till the contagion had entirely subsided. Yet, in spite of 
his generous and skilful exertions, no fewer than five thousand 
men, able to bear arms, were carried off by the violence of the 
distemper. 

Pericles himself was attacked by it, and, after lingering for a 
time, sunk under its attack. As he was lying on his death-bed, 
apparently senseless and on the point of breathing his last, his 
friends around him began to enumerate and extol his exploits; 
they did not imagine that their words were at all noticed by the 



B . c. 431—404. PELOPONNESIAN WAR. 173 

sick man. He heard every thing, however, and suddenly break- 
ing silence, said in an audible voice : " I wonder that you should 
so well recollect and so highly extol a series of actions in which 
fortune had so great a share, and which are common to me and 
to many other generals; whilst you pass unnoticed the most 
honorable circumstance of my whole life, that I never caused 
any citizen to put on mourning.' ' It is easy to conceive what 
must have been the grief occasioned in Athens, by the loss of a 
man who had constantly evinced superior abilities in every part 
of the government. The faults which the Athenians committed 
after his death, still more than the tears which they shed at his 
funeral, manifested the greatness of their loss on this occasion 
(b. c. 428). 

The next campaigns were remarkable chiefly for the siege of 
Plata3a, one of the most famous in antiquity for the vigor of the 
attack, and still more so for the heroic bravery of the resistance. 
During three years in succession; four hundred Plataean and 
eighty Athenian soldiers withstood all the efforts of a numerous 
army of Lacedaemonians and their allies. The former having, at 
length, consumed all their provisions, and expecting no more aid 
from Athens, formed the bold scheme of making their escape 
across the camp of the enemy; one-half of them, however, ter- 
rified by the extraordinary difficulty of such an attempt, lost 
courage at the moment for its execution. The others persisted 
in their design, and, availing themselves of a dark and stormy 
night, forced their passage over the double wall which the be- 
siegers had built round the city, and escaped without loss, before 
the enemy could recover from their surprise. As to those who 
had chosen to remain in Platsea, they surrendered on condition 
that their lives should not be forfeited without the benefit of a 
legal trial. 

Five Spartan commissaries were appointed judges in this 
affair. Without laying any crime to the charge of the prisoners, 
they simply asked them whether they had, during the present 
war, done any service to the Peloponnesian confederacy. This 
unexpected question surprised and perplexed the Plateeans. They 
reminded their judges of the signal services which they had 
formerly rendered to all Greece at the time of the Persian inva- 
sion, and showed, by appealing to recent facts, that their present 
situation was a misfortune, and not a crime. But the stern 
policy of the Lacedaemonians, and still more the implacable ani- 
mosity of the Thebans, had already sealed the fate of these brave 
and unhappy men. They were again asked the same question, 
"whether, since the beginning of the war, they had rendered any 

" 15* 



174 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part IV. 

service to the Spartans and their allies;" and being made to 
advance one after the other, they answered in the negative, and 
were all butchered without mercy. 

After this bloody execution, hostilities were carried on in 
various places and with alternate success : many battles took 
place, in which sometimes Athens, sometimes Sparta, had the 
advantage ; but none of them were decisive. The most distin- 
guished general, at this period of the war, seems to have been 
the Lacedaemonian Brasidas, and, next to him, Nicias the Athenian. 
At the end of ten years, the two parties, equally tired and dis- 
pirited by their respective losses, consented to a truce, and even 
to a treaty of alliance, which, if it did not entirely stop, at least 
suspended for a time the effects of their former resentment. 
This treaty was called, from the name of its most zealous pro- 
moter, the peace of Nicias (b. c. 421). 

The flame of war was soon rekindled. There existed at this 
time in Athens a rich, talented and fiery youth, called Alcibiades, 
who greatly attracted public attention by the brilliancy of his 
natural endowments, and the flexibility of his temper, equally 
susceptible of the various impressions of virtue and vice. Being, 
above all, excessively ambitious and desirous of fame, he used 
every means to provoke a new rupture between the two rival 
states; unfortunately for his country and for himself, he suc- 
ceeded in the attempt. By his advice, the Athenians resolved 
to carry the war into Sicily and lay siege to the important city 
of Syracuse, which, being a Peloponnesian colony, was naturally 
more inclined to take part with their enemies. Alcibiades him- 
self was appointed commander of the expedition, together with 
Nicias, whom we have already mentioned, and Lamachus, another 
brave and experienced general. 

Athens had scarcely ever fitted out a more gallant armament 
than that which sailed from the harbor of Piraeus for the inva- 
sion of Sicily. It reached without obstacle the shores of that 
island, where Alcibiades took the city of Catana by surprise ; 
this was his first and last exploit during the Sicilian expedition. 
An order came, recalling him to Athens, where he had been ac- 
cused of having, some days before the departure of the fleet, 
mutilated all the statues of Mercury. He instantly obeyed the 
summons; but reflecting during the voyage on the well-known 
fickleness of his fellow-citizens, and perhaps apprehensive that 
he would not be acquitted, he determined secretly to leave those 
who accompanied him, and effect his escape. He executed his 
design with his usual ingenuity. Having afterwards learned that 
the Athenians had condemned him to death as an outlaw; "I 



b. c. 431—401. PELOrONNESIAN WAR. 175 

will let them know," replied he, "that I am still alive." la 
effect, he joined the party of the Lacedaemonians, and suggested to 
them a variety of measures best calculated to injure the interests 
of his country. 

The departure of Alcibiades, and, soon after, the death of 
Lamachus, left Nicias sole commander of the Athenian army. 
This general had already approached Syracuse, and, whilst his 
fleet blockaded it by sea, he almost entirely surrounded it by 
land with a line of intrenchments and redoubts; he moreover 
frequently defeated and repelled the besieged, whenever they 
endeavored by their sallies to retard his progress or interrupt his 
work. The city was thus more and more closely pressed, and 
the Syracusans were on the point of surrendering, when the 
arrival of Gylippus, a Spartan general, suddenly changed the 
aspect of affairs. 

Gylippus commenced his operations by sending a messenger 
to Nicias, to offer him five days for his departure from Sicily. 
The Athenian leader scorned to answer such a proposal. Several 
combats ensued, in which Gylippus carried at first some posts 
occupied by the besiegers, and although repulsed on one occa- 
sion, signally defeated them in a second battle. 

The tide of success had now taken a different course; the 
Athenians were likewise conquered at sea, with a considerable 
loss of men and vessels. So many disasters had already placed 
them in a very precarious situation, when the arrival of powerful 
reinforcements from Athens revived their hopes and courage; 
but their joy was not of long duration. An ill-concerted attack 
made during the night by Demosthenes, the leader of the new 
reinforcement, entirely failed, and cost the Athenians two thou- 
sand soldiers. Their ranks were also daily thinned by autumnal 
diseases; despondency pervaded more and more the remaining 
troops, and it became absolutely necessary to make preparations 
for abandoning the siege. 

This measure, Avhich had been already deferred too long, was 
at length about to be executed by the Athenians, when an 
eclipse of the moon again postponed their departure. Both the 
soldiers and the generals took this phenomenon for a very un- 
favorable omen, and Nicias expressed his determination to stay 
till the next full moon. This delay proved their ruin. The 
enemy had time to block up their vessels in the harbor, of which 
they had taken possession from the beginning of the siege, and 
to inflict on them new and severe losses. Moreover, Gylippus 
and the Syracusans sent various bodies of soldiers to occupy all 
the passes and roads by which the Athenians would probably 



176 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part IV, 

attempt to retreat, and prepared every thing for their final over- 
throw. 

These unfortunate men, forty thousand in number, at last set 
-out from their camp, under the conduct of their chief leaders 
Nicias and Demosthenes, almost destitute of provisions, and com- 
pelled to leave behind them their sick and wounded, whilst they 
themselves were closely pursued and harassed by a victorious 
foe, who gave them no respite. To add to their misfortune, 
Demosthenes, with a part of the army, lost his way during the 
night, and afterwards found himself so entangled and surrounded 
in a narrow pass, that the utmost exertions of courage could not 
save him from the necessity of surrendering. Two days later, 
Nicias, after a brave defence, and a dreadful slaughter of his 
troops, was reduced to the same extremity. He surrendered 
himself a prisoner of war, together with the sad remnant of his 
once flourishing army. Thus the defeat of the Athenians, both 
by sea and land, was decisive, entire, irreparable, and in fact 
proved to be the deadly blow to the greatness and power of their 
nation (b. c. 413). 

The Syracusans, not less exasperated by their former losses 
than elated by their present success, treated their prisoners with 
inhuman rigor. Both Nicias and Demosthenes were put to 
death, contrary to both the intentions and the promise of Gylip- 
pus. The other Athenians, to the number of at least seven 
thousand, were confined in quarries or dungeons, where they had 
to suffer, during several months, incredible pains, hunger, thirst, 
and every species of hardship. Many of them died in those 
frightful dungeons. Others were sold as slaves, and, owing to 
their prudent and modest behavior, began to experience much 
kinder treatment. Plutarch relates (in the life of Nicias) that 
some of them were indebted for their preservation to the pen of 
Euripides and to the verses of that poet, with the recital of which 
they charmed the ears of their masters. These liberated cap- 
tives, upon their return to Athens, went to give thanks to 
Euripides, and, in the most respectful language, hailed him as 
their deliverer. 

The Athenians, dismayed by their defeats, resolved to recall 
Alcibiades, as being the only man truly able to restore their 
forlorn affairs. He eagerly acceded to the proposal; but not 
being willing to return except as a conqueror, he at first went to 
join the Athenian fleet near the Asiatic coast, and so encouraged 
the soldiers by word and example, that the Lacedaemonians were 
conquered in two great battles, their admiral was slain, and their 
army almost entirely destroyed. He then steered towards 



b. c. 431—404. PELOPONNESIAN WAR. 177 

Athens, where his arrival at the head of the victorious fleet was 
hailed with every demonstration of joy. But this flattering ap- 
plause of the multitude was transitory. As Alcibiades again set 
sail in order to pursue the course of his exploits, one of his 
lieutenants took occasion during his absence to attack Lysander, 
the Lacedaemonian admiral, who defeated him and captured 
fifteen galleys. Alcibiades, as chief leader of the expedition, had 
to bear the blame of this loss, although it did not happen 
through his fault; he was again deprived of the command of the 
fleet, and ten generals were appointed to exercise it in his place. 

These new commanders were not deficient in zeal for the ser- 
vice of their country, but not having the ability of Alcibiades, 
they experienced at first nothing but disajDpointment and defeat. 
This obliged the Athenian government to furnish them with a 
greater naval force. By uncommon efforts, the number of their 
galleys was made to amount on the present occasion to one hun- 
dred and fifty, to which the Lacedaemonians and their allies 
opposed one hundred and twenty vessels. The latter were under 
the command of Callicratidas, a true Spartan hero, who, in 
justice, magnanimity and valor, was equal to the best of the 
Greeks, but who at the same time showed himself too sensible on 
the point of honor. Being advised not to hazard a battle against 
the superior numbers of the enemy, he replied that he could not 
avoid it without shame, and that his life was of little moment to 
the republic. "The fate of Sparta," said he, "is not attached 
to one man." The action took place near the Arginusse islands, 
over against Lesbos, and was one of the most terrible and obsti- 
nate of the whole war. Callicratidas bore down upon the enemy 
with such vigor, that he sunk or disabled many of their ships at 
the first onset. At last, his own vessel coming to close fight 
with the galley of Pericles (the son of the great Pericles and one 
of the Athenian admirals), was caught by a grappling-iron, from 
which he could not extricate it. After incredible efforts of 
courage, the Spartan admiral fell among the slain, and his death 
was followed by a complete overthrow and almost total destruc- 
tion of his fleet (b. c. 406). 

It was held a sacred duty among the ancients, to bury their 
soldiers who had fallen in battle. The Athenian generals had 
not only intended, but even taken measures, to comply with this 
duty; but a violent storm prevented them from fulfilling their 
design. In all this, there manifestly was no fault of theirs; yet 
the people at Athens were so much incensed because their dead 
had not received the rites of sepulture, that they deposed the vic- 
torious generals, and, in spite of the facts which vindicated their 



178 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part IV. 

conduct, doomed six of them to capital punishment. Among the 
multitude of citizens, a few only, and in the senate Socrates 
alone, had the courage to protest against the absurd and cruel 
measure. The sentence was no sooner executed than the people 
themselves opened their eyes, and were struck with horror at the 
iniquity of their judgment; but their tardy repentance could not 
restore the dead. 

In this odious manner did the Athenians, otherwise a polished 
and humane nation, often inflict on their worthiest citizens the 
penalty of banishment or death, and entail on themselves severe 
injuries and indelible disgrace; at one time, blindly indulging in 
groundless exasperation or jealousy, and the next moment ac- 
knowledging the innocence of their victims, and bewailing, with 
bitter and fruitless regret, their own injustice, ingratitude, and 
criminal precipitation. Such, among other instances, was the 
case with the illustrious philosopher whose name has just been 
mentioned, as will be seen in the following section. As to 
Alcibiades, the most extraordinary character of that period, he 
died about the same time in Asia Minor, a fugitive and an exile, 
the victim both of his own indiscretion, and of treason, jealousy, 
and resentment. 

The defeat of the Spartans at the Arginusae islands obliged 
them to reinstate Lysander, the ablest of their admirals, a man 
otherwise noted for the looseness of his principles, and to invest 
him again with the chief authority in the fleet. The Athenians, 
with a hundred and eighty galleys, met him at the strait of the 
Hellespont, and offered him battle near the mouth of a small 
river called iEgos Potamos; but although his vessels and troops 
seemed ready for action, he did not move from his position. 
The enemy came four days in succession to make the same offer : 
the Lacedaemonians still remained motionless. 

Nothing could now equal the confidence and security of the 
Athenians. Lysander, fully aware of the circumstance, waited, 
on the fifth day, till they had returned to their station, and the 
soldiers had, as usual, left the vessels to scatter themselves and 
take repose on the shore. Just at that moment, the Spartan 
fleet bore down upon them with incredible fury, captured or dis- 
abled all their ships except nine, sent detachments to cut in 
pieces or disperse the troops on shore, and took three thousand 
prisoners, with their generals. This masterly stroke, one of the 
greatest ever performed, was achieved in the space of an hour. 
It cost the conqueror scarcely any loss, and yet was sufficient to 
prostrate the whole force of the Athenians, and put an end to 
the Peloponnesian war, after it had lasted twenty-seven years. 



b. c. 431—404. PELOPONNESIAN WAR. 179 

The triumphant fleet of Sparta soon appeared in sight of 
Athens, and blockaded it by sea, whilst a numerous army under 
Kings Agis and Pausanias besieged it by land. The inhabitants 
had no troops, no allies, no vessels, no provisions, no resources 
whatever to enable them to oppose a successful resistance; yet 
they were unwilling to surrender. Nothing but the extremity 
of famine could prevail upon them to take this humiliating step, 
and sue for a capitulation. Some among the confederates were 
of opinion that Athens should be entirely demolished ; but the 
Lacedemonians declared that they would never consent to destroy 
this noble city, which had produced so many great and illustrious 
men, and in the most perilous times had done so much for all 
Greece. Peace was therefore concluded on the following condi- 
tions : " That the Athenians should confine themselves within the 
bounds of Attica; should demolisli their principal fortifications 
and the harbor of Piraeus ; should deliver up all their ships ex- 
cept twelve; should have the same friends and the same foes 
with the Lacedemonians, and follow them at command either 
by land or by sea." (railing as they were, all these conditions 
were accepted, and some of them were immediately executed 
(b. c. 404). 

Lysander, without giving the Athenians time to adopt other 
measures, entirely changed the form of their government: he 
appointed a Spartan governor over their city, together with thirty 
archons or magistrates, to whom power was given to enact laws. 
Finally, having put a strong garrison in the citadel, he returned 
to Lacedaemon, crowned with laurels and loaded with booty. 
But the government which he had established in Athens was of 
short duration. The thirty magistrates appointed by him com- 
mitted so many acts of despotism, injustice and cruelty, that they 
provoked the indignation and horror of all sensible persons 
against their administration. Thrasybulus, who was not less a 
brave general than an excellent citizen, put himself at the head 
of some troops, overthrew this tyrannical government, and, if he 
could not restore the power, at least succeeded in restoring the 
liberties of his nation. 

Several years elapsed before open hostilities between Athens 
and Sparta were renewed. This interval was filled up, on the 
one hand, by the trial and death of the illustrious philosopher 
Socrates; and, on the other, by the expedition of the younger 
Cyrus against his brother Artaxerxes, king of Persia, and the 
famous retreat of the ten thousand, so elegantly described by 
Xenophon the historian, one of the chief actors in this interest- 



180 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part IV. 

TRIAL AND DEATH OF SOCRATES. 

Whilst so many civil and political revolutions happened 
throughout Greece, Socrates was effecting a more useful and 
pacific change in the study of moral philosophy. It will not be 
amiss to dwell at some length on this celebrated man, who ex- 
ercised so great an influence over his contemporaries by his doc- 
trine^ his moral instructions, and his example. 

Socrates was born at Athens, one year after the historian 
Thucydides, and about the time of Cimon's victories over the 
Persians near the river Eurymedon. As his father Sophroniscus 
was a sculptor, he himself exercised the same art in his youth. 
He also applied with great ardor and success to the study of the 
other fine arts, as well as of rhetoric and the exact sciences, and 
gave, as soldier, several proofs of his intrepidity during the first 
campaigns of the Peloponnesian war. Yet, because his mind 
was most strongly bent towards moral philosophy and the know- 
ledge of man's duties, he made this most important science the 
chief object of his inquiries and meditations. He studied it first 
under the philosopher Anaxagoras, who had been also the master 
of Pericles; and afterwards entirely devoted himself to it, both 
for his own sake and for the benefit of others, seeking in it, not 
the bare knowledge, but also the practice of virtue. 

His principal care was to subdue first his too hasty disposition, 
and his efforts in this particular were eminently successful ; this 
should be accounted the more praiseworthy in him, as he was natu- 
rally much inclined to anger. In order to check this passion, 
and to acquire moderation and evenness of temper, he made an 
agreement with his friends, that they should warn him whenever 
they would see him on the point of indulging his natural irasci- 
bility j at the first sign or word of advice, he lowered the tone 
of his voice, or even ceased to speak. By this and other efficient 
means, he obtained great command over his temper. As he one 
day felt himself very much excited, he said to a slave; "I would 
beat you, were I not angry." At another time, being insolently 
struck on the face, he smiled and said : " It is rather unpleasant 
not to know when one should put on a helmet." 

He had a wife whose blunt, peevish manners constantly tried 
his patience. She sometimes gave way so far to her passionate 
temper, as publicly to strip him of his cloak, and on one occa- 
sion, after loading him with a torrent of abuse, she poured the 
contents of a filthy vase on his head. Socrates, as usual, con- 
tented himself with laughing at her fury: " After such claps of 
thunder," said he, a it was natural to expect a shower." 



TRIAL AND DEATH OF SOCRATES. 181 

This great man did not confine his virtuous exertions to him- 
self; he endeavored, with admirable zeal, to lead others to the 
love and practice of virtue. To spread the principles of honesty 
and morality among the people, he made use of every favorable 
circumstance, public or private, that offered itself, to give them 
useful instructions. He endeavored, above all, to improve the 
good natural dispositions of young men, to form their minds and 
hearts, and train them to justice, temperance, fortitude, respect 
for religion and the laws, etc., warning them, at the same time, 
with the greatest earnestness, against idleness, licentiousness and 
vanity. 

His whole soul seemed bent on these grand and vitally im- 
portant subjects. His manner of teaching was so attractive, and 
he possessed so persuasive an eloquence, that the young Athenians 
frequented his lectures with incredible ardor; they left their 
parents, their homes, their amusements, to see and hear Socrates. 
Foreigners were not excluded from his school, and he readily 
extended to them the same care that he bestowed on his fellow- 
citizens. Nor could he be accused in all this of any interested 
view, since he received no reward, no salary whatever, for the 
trouble which he took and the instructions which he delivered. 

Having lost nearly all his fortune by the failure of a creditor, 
he neither complained nor appeared any way concerned. Al- 
though he might have easily retrieved this loss by the aid of his 
numerous and wealthy friends, he always refused to do so, and 
declined all their offers of assistance, readily preferring to make 
up for the deficiency of his fortune by strict frugality, to which 
he had inured himself from his early years. For the same rea- 
son, he nobly rejected the gifts and promises of Archelaus, king 
of Macedonia, who ardently desired to have him at his court; he 
felt reluctant, he said, to dwell with a man for whose favors he 
was unable to make a return. 

It would be difficult indeed for one not actuated by super- 
natural motives, to surpass Socrates in his contempt of riches 
and his love of poverty. At the sight of great treasures, he 
would congratulate himself, and exclaim: "How many things 
there are, of which I have no need!" Once, however, when 
surrounded by his disciples, he observed that he would buy a 
cloak, if he had money. This remark was quite sufficient: it 
became a matter of dispute among them, who should have the 
privilege of making him this trifling present. 

Besides disinterestedness and magnanimity, Socrates evinced 
also great fortitude, not only in the affair, already mentioned, of 
the six generals unjustly condemned to death by the Athenians, 

16 



182 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part IV. 

but likewise under the tyrannical government of the thirty 
archons. He opposed their violent proceedings, consoled the 
afflicted citizens, labored to revive the hopes of the oppressed, 
and was for all a model of courage and firmness, so long as the 
tyranny lasted. 

Such was the celebrated man, against whom a trial was insti- 
tuted and sentence of death pronounced in his own city, by those 
who should have been foremost in rewarding his zealous and 
successful exertions for the public good. The first instigators 
of these iniquitous proceedings were certain sophists, much 
respected in Athens, proud of their fame, and eager in advancing 
their pecuniary interests. To prevent them from perverting the 
minds of the young Athenians by their vain and deceitful dis- 
courses, Socrates had often unmasked their ignorance and hypo- 
crisy. Men of this description naturally became his inveterate 
enemies. To them were added numbers of vicious persons, for 
whom his example and instructions were a continual reproach, 
or who, through base jealousy, could not bear his conspicuous 
merit. Such were the various and more or less guilty contrivers 
of Socrates' ruin. 

The first attack directed against him came from the poet 
Aristophanes. As Socrates had openly testified his dislike and 
contempt of the immoral productions of that author, the pride of 
Aristophanes or the advice of wicked persons, prompted him to 
gratify either his personal resentment or the malice of others, by 
making the wisest philosopher of Greece the subject of a satirical 
comedy, and holding him up on the stage to public ridicule as a 
false teacher. 

This first attempt to ruin the character of Socrates was fol- 
lowed by a second, threatening his liberty and life, although not 
put into execution till many years after. Melitus, a contempt- 
ible writer, and Anytus, an envious, rich, and powerful man, 
lodged against him a formal accusation before the magistrates 
of Athens: they charged him with introducing novel deities 
under the name of demons, and seducing the Athenian youths 
from their duty. To* these groundless charges Socrates was 
summoned to answer before a tribunal of five hundred judges. 

No sooner was this second attack made known, than his friends 
hastened to offer him their services for the vindication of his 
innocence. Among others, the orator Lysias composed in his 
defence an eloquent and pathetic discourse ; but Socrates, ever 
firm and magnanimous, would not consent to receive assistance, 
nor would he stoop to excite the compassion and to implore the 
mercy of those before whom he was arraigned. He defended 



TRIAL AND DEATH OF SOCRATES. 183 

himself with the calm intrepidity of conscious innocence, with 
such force and dignity, that he seemed to be the judge of his 
judges. Yet this very circumstance principally served to indis- 
pose their minds against him, and he was pronounced guilty by 
a small majority. Being then asked what he himself thought 
should be his punishment, he answered : " Having spent my 
whole life in earnest endeavors to serve my country and benefit 
my fellow-citizens by teaching them the way of virtue, I know 
of no other punishment that I deserve, than to be maintained 
during the remainder of my days at the expense of the repub- 
lic." The judges were so much offended by this answer, which 
was an implicit reproof of their injustice, that they condemned 
him to drink hemlock, the usual punishment of state criminals. 

Socrates heard his sentence with the same composure and 
firmness with which he had defended his cause. He observed 
that he would readily, in obedience to the laws, suffer death, to 
which nature had condemned him long since ; but that his ac- 
cusers and enemies had condemned themselves to eternal disgrace. 
Apollodorus, one of his disciples, began to express how intensely 
grieved he was to see him die innocent. " Why/' replied Socra- 
tes, " would you have me die guilty V He spent his last days 
in conversation with his friends on philosophical subjects, espe- 
cially the immortality of the soul ; refused the means of escape 
that were offered to him j and calmly drinking the fatal hem- 
lock, expired a few moments after, at the age of about seventy 
years, B. c. 400. 

It cannot be denied that Socrates was an admirable philoso- 
pher, a great benefactor to his country, and one of the greatest 
men that Greece, perhaps even the whole world, ever produced. 
He was not, it is true, without his failings ; he may have been, 
on certain occasions, actuated by a spirit of affectation and philo- 
sophical pride ; he may have, once or twice, uttered loose words 
and acted in an objectionable manner; yet, whatever some may 
think to the contrary,* it is impossible to read the dialogues of 
Plato and the memoirs of Xenophon, without being convinced 
that Socrates was in the main a zealous and most sagacious in- 
quirer after moral truth and virtue, and, except on another point, 
to be afterwards mentioned, generally animated with an earnest 
desire to make others relish, both in theory and practice, the same 
laudable objects which he himself pursued. 

"When we consider," says the judicious Kollin, "how sub- 

* E. g. Feller, the biographer, who finds fault with whatever Socra- 
tes did or said. See Dictionnaire Ilistorique, article Socrates. 



184 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part IV. 

lime were the sentiments of Socrates with regard to moral vir- 
tues, sobriety, temperance, contempt of riches, patience in adver- 
sity, and forgiveness of injuries; also, with regard to the deity; 
the unity of the Supreme Being ; his immensity, which sees and 
knows every thing ; his omnipotence in the creation, and provi- 
dence in the government of the world j the immortality of the 
soul ; her last end and eternal destiny ; the rewards of the good 
and the punishment of the wicked : when we consider this train 
of sublime knowledge, we ask our reason whether it was a pagan 
philosopher who thought and spoke thus, and can scarcely per- 
suade ourselves that, from so dark and impure a source as heathenism 
was, should shine forth so brilliant and glorious rays of light."* 

It is however equally certain that this great and enlightened 
philosopher was far from being in possession of the whole truth. 
Whilst he knew and taught that there is but one supreme God 
and Lord of the universe, he at the same time admitted inferior 
and subordinate gods, namely, the false gods of his countrymen, and 
was of opinion, as his own conduct fully testified, that adoration 
and sacrifices were to be offered to them. This was his capital error 
and fault. For, either he believed in the divinity of these infe- 
rior deities, or he did not. In the first case, he divided, and, by 
dividing, destroyed the divine nature. In the second, he paid 
to mere creatures, known as such by himself, the homage of 
supreme worship and adoration due only to the Creator, and thus 
incurred, in either case, the guilt of polytheism or idolatry. 

Still, as this was no crime in the judgment of a heathen peo- 
ple, the Athenians afterwards lamented, with bitter regret, their 
injustice towards Socrates. Some authors relate that, at the ex- 
hibition of one of the tragedies of Euripides, in which the hero 
of the piece, called Palamedes, had been destroyed by a foul 
calumny, the whole assembly, remembering Socrates, melted into 
tears, when the actor came to the verse, 

''You doom the justest of the Greeks to perish." 

The whole city was for a time a scene of affliction and mourn- 
ing; nay, among his accusers, Melitus was singled out to suffer 
capital punishment, and the others were banished. Finally, the 
Athenians, not satisfied with these marks of their grief, passed 
from one extreme to the other, from prejudice and envy to a feel- 
ing of religious veneration for Socrates. They not only erected 
a splendid statue of brass in his honor, but placed it in one of 
the most conspicuous parts of the city ; and the man whom they 

* Ancient History, vol. iv, p. 449. 



8. c. 401—399. CYRUS THE YOUNGER, ETC. 185 

had condemned as an impious criminal, they now began to honor 
as a hero and a demi-god. 

Never had any philosopher more numerous or more illustrious 
disciples than Socrates had in Athens : Plato and Xenophon, not 
to mention others, would suffice to confer immortal honor on their 
master. This is not the place to dwell on the merit of these 
distinguished men ; their names will recur again, and with more 
propriety, in the sequel. 

EXPEDITION OF CYRUS THE YOUNGER.— RETREAT OF THE 
TEN THOUSAND.— b. c. 401-399. 

After the death of Artaxerxes Longimanus, and of two other 
kings, his sons and successors, who reigned but a very short time, 
the throne of Persia was occupied by their brother, Darius No- 
thus, during the space of nineteen years (b. c. 424—405). The 
prominent feature of this new reign was an almost continual 
series of intrigues at court, and revolts in the provinces. 

Nothus, having died towards the end of the Peloponnesian 
war (b. c. 405), was succeeded by his eldest son, Artaxerxes, 
surnamed Mneinon from his excellent memory. But he had 
another son possessed of great talents and of still greater ambi- 
tion, the famous Cyrus, surnamed the Younger, whom he had 
invested with the government of all Lesser Asia. This young 
prince, not satisfied with his portion, began to indulge in the 
most culpable and audacious projects. Having raised an army 
of about a hundred thousand barbarians and thirteen thousand 
Greeks, he set out, at their head, from the city of Sardis, and 
advanced into the heart of his brother's dominions, with the 
desperate resolution of depriving him of his crown and his life. 

Artaxerxes, on his part, had mustered a force of nine hundred 
thousand men, and was advancing in good order against his foes. 
The two armies met at Cunaxa, in the country of Babylon. The 
battle had scarcely commenced, when Cyrus, perceiving his bro- 
ther in the centre of the Persian troops, uttered a loud cry, and 
urged his horse in that direction, accompanied by a few attend- 
ants. With desperate fury he killed or put to flight all who 
opposed his passage, and having approached the king, wounded 
him severely, but was himself wounded both by the king and by 
other Persian warriors, and fell dead on the spot ; thus paying 
with his life the forfeit of his lawless ambition. 

In the mean time, the Greeks of his army had attacked the 
multitude of barbarians to whom they were opposed, and put 
them in complete disorder. In vain did Artaxerxes, who came 

16* 



186 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part IV. 

to this part of the field after his victory over Cyrus, rally his 
troops, and lead them again to the charge ; they were again put 
to flight by that small but intrepid band of warriors. Thus the 
Greeks were completely victorious. However, after the fall of 
the young prince for whom they fought, their exertions had no 
longer any object, and it became their evident interest to make a 
speedy return to their country. They immediately set out on their 
homeward march, though by a different road. After a few days, 
the peril of their situation was unexpectedly and dreadfully in- 
creased by the loss of their chief officers ; these unhappy men, 
being drawn into a snare, through the perfidious agency of a Per- 
sian general who pretended to be their friend, were all made 
prisoners and put to death without mercy. 

This sad event placed the Greeks in a most gloomy condition. 
They found themselves reduced to the number of ten thousand, 
without generals, without guides, without provisions, and at the dis- 
tance of nearly fifteen hundred miles from Greece, hemmed in by 
deep rivers, and surrounded by enemies. At the sight of so many 
dangers, their distress was extreme. Still Xenophon, one of 
their number, succeeded by his eloquent exhortations in raising 
their drooping spirits, and persuaded them to proceed courage- 
ously in their march, after having first appointed new leaders. 
Himself and four others were chosen for this office. The troops 
committed themselves with implicit reliance to their guidance, 
and set out again, fully determined to open a passage through 
every enemy. 

They were made to advance, first in the form of a square bat- 
talion, and then in two columns, with the baggage between them, 
and some bodies of reserve. For want of boats, they could not 
pass the Tigris and the Euphrates, till, by marching towards the 
north for many days, they reached the mountains of Armenia, 
where these two great rivers take their rise. During this time, 
they were often compelled to fight, either against the Persians 
who pursued them, or against the inhabitants of the countries 
through which they passed. A thousand other difficulties and 
obstacles continually impeded their progress, such, for instance, 
as deep and rapid streams, mountains and defiles, desert places, 
hunger and thirst, rain, cold, and snow sometimes to the depth 
of five or six feet, etc. The Greeks, by their patience, constancy, 
and valor, overcame all these obstacles, and, at the close of about 
four months, reached the Grecian colonies near the Euxine sea. 
They thence proceeded towards the Hellespont, and as far as the 
city of Pergamus, where they enlisted themselves among the 
troops of Thymbron, the general of the Lacedaemonians, who 



b. c. 399—387. AGESILAUS, ETC. 187 

was preparing to march, against the Persian satraps Tissaphernes 
and Pharnabazus. 

The retreat of the ten thousand Greeks has always been con- 
sidered a perfect model in the art of warfare, and one of the most 
glorious exploits recorded in military annals ; indeed, no enter- 
prise could have been commenced with more boldness and valor, 
or conducted with more prudence and success. Numberless, as 
we have just seen, were the dangers which attended their march 
through so many hostile nations ; yet they returned victorious 
and triumphant to their own country. Long after, when An- 
tony, the famous Roman general, was pursued in nearly the 
same provinces by a Parthian army, finding himself in the like 
perilous situation, he exclaimed, through admiration of their 
invincible courage : " the retreat of the ten thousand \" The 
Greeks themselves were taught by the success of this admirable 
retreat, to have still greater confidence in their strength and con- 
tempt for their enemies than they had before. They could now 
look forward, with well-founded hope, to the time when they 
would be able to overthrow the Persian empire. 



GREAT QUALITIES AND EXPLOITS OF AGESILAUS.— LEAGUE 
AGAINST SPARTA.— PEACE OF ANTALCIDAS.— b. c. 399-387. 

This consciousness of superior ability was increased in the 
minds of the Greeks by new victories over the Persians, whose 
policy during the long struggle between Sparta and Athens had 
been to favor the two parties in succession, the more surely to 
weaken both. It was principally by their assistance that the 
Lacedaemonians were at length enabled to crush the power of 
the Athenian republic j but the Persians were now to reap the 
bitter fruit of this ungenerous conduct, and to tremble for their 
own territory. A very singular circumstance in this series of 
events was, that the fresh losses which they experienced were 
inflicted by that very nation whose preponderance over all Greece 
their partiality had promoted : Agesilaus, the Spartan king, was 
in their regard another Themistocles or Cimon, destined to hum- 
ble again the mighty sovereign of Persia. 

The mind of Agesilaus was as great and noble as his bodily 
appearance was mean. Although he was lame and of small sta- 
ture, his courage, his wisdom, his ability, his constant compli- 
ance with the laws, and his zeal for the interests of his country, 
rendered him one of the most conspicuous kings of Lacedsemon. 
Unfortunately, his ambition equalled his valor, and subsequently 



188 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part IV. 

involved Sparta in great difficulties. Being charged, in the be 
ginning, to pursue the war against the Persians, after it had been 
carried on for a time by Thynibron and Dercyllidas, he had no 
sooner taken the command of the army, than he showed what 
an able general may effect, when he has previously known how 
to gain the esteem, confidence and affection of his troops. Every 
thing yielded to the vigor or prudence of Agesilaus. He restored 
good order and tranquillity in the Grecian colonies of Lesser 
Asia, defeated the Persian generals, took many of their cities, 
and carried off an immense quantity of spoils. 

So many glorious achievements were performed by Agesilaus 
within the short space of two years. His military fame was now 
so great, that it already spread terror throughout the provinces 
of Upper Asia ; deputies came from all sides, to make alliance 
with him, and fresh bodies of troops continually arrived to join 
and increase his army. Encouraged by this great success, he 
seriously thought of going forward to attack the Persian monarch 
in the very centre of his dominions. But just at that time, he 
received a message requiring his immediate return for the defence 
of his own nation, whose power was more than ever threatened 
by a terrible and perilous war. He instantly obeyed, and con- 
tented himself with saying that he was driven from Asia by ten 
thousand archers of the king, meaning by this expression Per- 
sian coins, having an archer represented on one side. 

This remark was correct. A large quantity of these coins had 
been distributed among the orators and other influential persons 
of the Grecian states, to rouse them against Sparta ) moreover, 
feelings of resentment or national jealousy made them anxious 
and eager to humble her proud superiority. Hence a powerful 
league, consisting of the Thebans, the Athenians, the Corin- 
thians and the Argives, was in a short time formed against the 
Laceda3inonians, and the armies immediately took the field. 
Agesilaus, on his return from Asia Minor, found the confede- 
rates encamped in the Boeotian plains, near Chseronea. Here, a 
fierce and well-contested battle took place, in which each party 
had the advantage in one part of the field, and was conquered in 
the other. On the whole, however, the result was- decidedly 
favorable to the Lacedaemonians, and enabled them to preserve, 
for some years longer, their superiority by land over their op- 
ponents. 

But they were not so fortunate by sea. Of the Athenian 
leaders who had distinguished themselves in the Peloponnesian 
war, Conon yet remained, a man of great energy and courage, 
skilful in finding out resources, and, notwithstanding his frequent 



b. c. 399—387. AGESILAUS, ETC. 189 

failures, justly esteemed an able admiral. In the battle of JEgos 
Potamos, he had escaped with nine vessels from the grasping hand 
of Lysander. Having retired to the court of Evagoras, king of 
Salamis in Cyprus, he watched from that place the vicissitude 
of events, and the various occasions that might present them- 
selves to retrieve the misfortunes of Athens. He at last found 
what he desired in the hostile feeling of the Persians against 
the Lacedaemonians, which had been so much excited by the at- 
tacks of the latter. 

When the moment had arrived for the continental league of 
the Greeks to be put into operation, Conon, supported by Phar- 
nabazus, the Persian satrap, obtained from King Artaxerxes a 
powerful fleet to act in the same cause. This armament was 
placed under the command of both Pharnabazus and Conon. 
They immediately went in search of the enemy, and met him 
near Cnidus, a maritime city of Caria. The naval force of the 
Lacedaemonians, although inferior to that of the Persians, was 
however considerable j hence Pysander, their admiral, a brother- 
in-law of Agesilaus, did not decline the combat, nay he displayed 
in it a truly Spartan valor, even at the cost of his life. But no- 
thing could resist the extraordinary efforts of Conon, who cap- 
tured many galleys, sunk others, and compelled the rest to seek 
safety in flight (b. c. 394). 

This brilliant victory deprived Sparta for ever of the superi- 
ority by sea, and also detached from her most of her Asiatic 
allies, some of whom declared for the Athenians, whilst others 
proclaimed their independence. Hence the battle of Cnidus 
proved a terrible blow to the Lacedaemonians. From that time, 
they made but feeble efforts in Asia ; their subsequent success 
on one side was often counterbalanced by heavy losses on the 
other, and their power soon declined even by land, till its pre- 
ponderance was completely lost in the disastrous battles of Leuc- 
tra and Mantinea. 

Athens, on the contrary, was now enabled to recover a great 
portion of her former ascendency. After the battle of Cnidus, 
the two victorious admirals, Pharnabazus and Conon, ravaged 
without opposition the coasts of Laconia; the satrap, then return- 
ing to his government of Phrygia, left the fleet under the direction 
of his colleague, and furnished him, besides, with large sums 
of money for the complete re-establishment of Athens. Conon, 
crowned with glory, and possessed of every facility to carry out 
his designs, revisited that city without delay. He was received 
with enthusiasm by the citizens : but he himself experienced 
feelings of mingled exultation and sorrow, exultation on behold- 



190 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part IV. 

ing again his beloved country after so long an absence, and sor- 
row at the sight of the sad condition of a place once so flourishing. 
He lost not a moment, but instantly began to rebuild the walls 
and fortifications of Athens, and employed in this important work 
not only masons and professed workmen, but likewise the other 
citizens, the sailors, the soldiers, even the allies, and generally 
all persons favorably disposed towards the undertaking. By 
these means, and by a striking change in human events, a city 
which the Persians had formerly destroyed, was restored to its 
ancient splendor by their willing co-operation both in men and 
money ; and this restoration was effected in spite of the hostile 
feelings of the Lacedaemonians, formerly its friends and allies.* 
By these untiring exertions of Conon, Athens again resumed a 
high rank in the list of nations, and became nearly as formidable 
as ever to her enemies. 

The Lacedaemonians again betrayed their alarm, with their 
usual jealousy, at this return of prosperity in a rival state. 
Rather than suffer their pre-eminence to slip from their hands, 
they had recourse to base or iniquitous measures in order to pre- 
serve it ; but in this also their hopes were soon frustrated. One 
of their movements covered them with everlasting disgrace, and 
another, besides the dishonor attached to it, became the occasion 
of their severest losses. ^ 

The first was the famous treaty of peace concluded by their 
plenipotentiary Antalcidas with the king of Persia. The terms 
of this treaty were, that the Greek cities in Asia, with the 
islands of Clazomena and Cyprus, should belong to the king; 
that the other Grecian states generally, whether great or small, 
should be left free and independent ) and that such as refused to 
embrace the peace, should be compelled to do so by force of 
arms (b. c. 387). 

It was plain that, by receiving these conditions, the Spartans 
agreed to take a foreign power for the arbiter of Greece. They 
again reduced to a state of bondage the cities for whose liberty 
Agesilaus had fought. In a word, they surrendered the glorious 
advantages which the victories of Themistoclcs and Cimon had 
extorted from the Persian court. The other Greeks, and espe- 

* Fatum illud Athenarum fuit, ut ante a Persis crematoe, manibus 
eorum, et nunc a Lacedternoniis dirutoo, ex spoliis Lacedtemoniorum 
restituerentur : versa quoque vice, nunc haberent socios, quos tunc 
hostes habuerant; et hostes nunc paterentur, cum quibus juncti tunc 
arctissimis societatis vinculis fuerant. — Justin, b. vi, c. 5. See also 
Plutarch, in his life of Agesilaus; Corn. Nepos in Conon, ch. 4; and 
Xenophon's Affairs of Greece, b. iv, ch. 8. 



b. c. 382—363. THEBAN WAR. 191 

cially the Thebans, were fully sensible of the disadvantages of 
such a peace; yet, because they were unable to resist the com- 
bined forces of Persia and Sparta, they all sooner or later acceded 
to the treaty. Such was, for the present, the unhappy though 
natural fruit of their endless dissensions. 



THEBAN WAR.*— b. c. 382—363. 

Another disgraceful step which the Lacedaemonians took for 
the purpose of securing their power, was the fraudulent occupa- 
tion of the citadel of Thebes. The loud complaints occasioned 
by this violation of the treaty of peace were of no avail ; four 
hundred Thebans found themselves under the necessity of with- 
drawing from the town, and retiring to Athens for protection 
and refuge (b. c. 382). The situation of Thebes appeared des- 
perate as to its liberties, whilst, on the contrary, the power of 
Sparta seemed established more firmly than ever. Still, the libe- 
ration of the one and the fall of the other were at hand ; Thebes 
itself was destined by Providence to crush the haughty pre-emi- 
nence of the Lacedaemonians, and render their late act of injus- 
tice and oppression the chief cause of their disasters. 

The latter city possessed at that time two men of uncommon 
merit, viz. : Pelopidas and Epaminondas. The first, who was 
still young and the only heir of an opulent family, spent his for- 
tune, not in expensive dress and luxurious living, but in assisting 
the needy and distressed, showing by this noble conduct that he 
was not the slave, but the true master of his riches. The second, 
through choice, lived in honorable poverty. He was, at the 
same time, grave, magnanimous, valiant, prudent, modest, temper- 
ate, and so much attached to truth, that he would never utter a 
falsehood, even in jest.f Both of them were able statesmen, skil- 
ful generals, devoted citizens, in a word, the heroes of their ago, and 
actuated by the noblest principles of patriotism. Far from being 
envious, they were so full of esteem for each other, that their 
intimacy lasted during their whole life, and rendered their united 
services and talents eminently useful to their native country. 
Such appeared, from the beginning of their public career, the 
two illustrious men who not only delivered Thebes from oppres- 

* From Xenophon's Affairs of Greece, b. v-vii ; — Plutarch's lives of 
Agesilaus and Pelopidas ; — Corn. Nepos, in Agesil., Pelop., and Ppam. ; — 
Justin, b. vi, c. 7, 8. 

f Erat modestus, continens, prudens, gravis, peritus belli, fortis 
manu, animo maximo ; adeo veritatis diligens, ut nejoco quidem men- 
tiretur. Corn. Nepos, in Epam., c. iii. 



192 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part IV. 

sion and the tyranny of powerful usurpers, but also, by their 
glorious achievements, raised it to the very first rank among the 
cities of Greece. 

Pelopidas was one of those whom the Lacedaemonian party 
had driven from Thebes, and obliged to withdraw to Athens. 
Here, having assembled his fellow-exiles, he impressed upon 
them the necessity of making a bold and decisive effort towards 
the liberation of their oppressed country. As Thrasybulus 
had formerly set out from Thebes, to suppress and destroy 
the tyrants of Athens, so, said he, should they go from Athens, 
to suppress and destroy the tyrants of Thebes. All readily as- 
sented to this proposal of Pelopidas. They set out with him, 
and having entered the city at dusk and in disguise, marched 
towards the house where the magistrates appointed by Sparta 
were assembled to partake of a splendid supper. 

A few moments before the conspirators reached that place, a 
messenger arrived, bringing to the magistrates letters containing 
a circumstantial account of the whole conspiracy. This messen- 
ger had been directed to tell them that the contents of the letters 
were of the most serious nature, and demanded immediate atten- 
tion : " Serious affairs to-morrow," exclaimed the first of the 
magistrates ; and both himself and the other guests continued to 
eat and drink, even to excess. It was no difficult task for the 
assailants, who surprised them in that state, to put them to the 
sword. During the following days, the Thebans, encouraged by 
Epaminondas and Pelopidas, and aided by several bodies of 
Athenian and Boeotian troops, besieged the citadel with great 
vigor, and obliged the Lacedaemonian garrison to capitulate, 
before any assistance could be received. Scarcely had the place 
been evacuated, when the expected succor arrived ; but it was 
too late, and Thebes was now ready to make Sparta pay the for- 
feit of her injustice (b. c. 378). 

War therefore was openly declared. The first hostilities con- 
sisted in private encounters, which naturally had no decisive 
result, and yet proved very advantageous to the Thebans, by ren- 
dering them still more hardy, intrepid, and experienced warriors 
than they were before. It was true, moreover, that commonly 
they came off victorious from these partial engagements. Hence 
the Spartan Antalcidas, one day seeing Agesilaus returning 
wounded from his campaign in Boeotia, said to him : " Truly 
you are well paid for teaching the Thebans to fight, when they 
had neither inclination nor sufficient skill for it." Though, to 
speak properly, the Thebans were not instructed by Agesilaus, 
but by those prudent generals whom they had placed at their 



b. c. 382—363. THEBAN WAR. 193 

head; who led them to the field, inured them to the labors of a 
military life, and improved every favorable opportunity to ani- 
mate them' by new success. 

Pelopidas was eminently qualified for this kind of warfare. He 
defeated several parties of Lacedaemonians at Plataea, Thespiae, 
and Tanagra. But his character was principally raised by the 
combat of Tegyrae, which was a sort of prelude to the battle of 
Leuctra ; for none of the other commanders could lay claim to 
any share in the honor of the day, nor had the enemy any pre- 
text to cover the shame of their defeat. As he was returning 
from Orchomenus to Tegyrae with some cavalry, and the battalion 
of young Thebans called the sacred band, he suddenly met a 
party of Lacedaemonians, three times as numerous as his own. — 
" We have fallen into the enemy's hands," exclaimed a Theban. — 
" And why," replied Pelopidas, " should we not rather say that 
they have fallen into ours V His hopes were fully realized: the 
little troop under his command fought so valiantly, that their 
opponents, however brave themselves, were repeatedly put to 
flight, and dispersed with dreadful slaughter. 

The Spartans had never before been conquered in a regular 
fight, whenever they brought to the field an equal, and much 
less, when they brought a superior number of troops. But on 
this occasion the reverse had happened ) and the battle of Te- 
gyrae plainly proved that pre-eminence of valor was no longer on 
their side. 

The battle of Leuctra contributed most to ruin both their 
political and their military superiority. The two parties had at 
length determined to come to a decisive engagement, although, 
indeed, their forces were very unequal in number. The army 
of the Lacedaemonians, commanded by King Cleombrotus, con- 
sisted of twenty-four thousand foot and sixteen hundred horse ; 
the Thebans had only four hundred horse and six thousand foot, 
just one-fourth of the Spartan army; but all of them were excel- 
lent troops, determined to conquer or to die, and full of confidence 
in their accomplished generals, Epaminondas, the commander-in- 
chief, and Pelopidas, the leader of the sacred band. 

The arrangement of the Theban force for the battle was made 
ill a masterly manner. It was the design of Epaminondas, as 
soon as the cavalry would commence the conflict, to advance with 
a dense battalion of his choicest men, and attack in person the 
Lacedaemonian phalanx, confident that, if he could once break 
through it, the rest of their army would give him but little trouble. 
The battle therefore was begun by the cavalry. As the Theban 
horse, though far less numerous, were better and hardier than 

XI 



194 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part IV. 

the Lacedaemonian cavalry, the latter did not stand the attack, 
but were forced back upon their infantry, which they threw into 
disorder. Epaminondas, following close upon them, fell with all 
the strength of his heavy battalion upon the Spartans commanded 
by King Cleombrotus. The latter, to make a diversion, detached 
a body of troops with orders to attack Epaminondas in flank ; but 
Pelopidas, seeing this movement, advanced with incredible speed 
and boldness at the head of the sacred band to prevent the ene- 
my's design, and flanked Cleombrotus himself, who, by that sud- 
den and unexpected attack, found his plan completely frustrated. 
Yet, the conflict was fierce and obstinate, and, as long as the king 
lived, the victory remained in suspense ; when he fell, the Lace- 
daemonians, unable any longer to resist the weight of the enemy, 
were compelled to retire. Although they succeeded, by prodi- 
gious efforts, in carrying off the body of their leader, they could 
not succeed in restoring the combat. Their rout was irretrievable, 
their defeat entire, with a greater loss than they had ever expe- 
rienced j for they left four thousand of their bravest troops on 
the field of battle, whereas the Thebans did not lose above three 
hundred men. Thus was the fatal blow given to the power of 
Sparta and to her superiority in Greece, a superiority which she 
had held during nearly five hundred years (b. c. 371). 

The victory of the Thebans drew over to their party a multitude 
of allies, who before this period sided with the Lacedaemonians. 
Their victorious army, within the space of one year, increased to 
the number of seventy thousand men, of whom the Thebans 
themselves were but one twelfth part ; Epaminondas advanced at 
their head into the enemy's territory, and, invading Laconia, 
subdued and plundered it as far as the river Eurotas. He even 
reached the suburbs of Sparta, and challenged the Lacedaemonians 
to a new battle, though for reasons of deep policy, that is, not to 
dissatisfy the rest of Greece, he did not attempt to force them to 
it, nor to reduce their city by assault. He contented himself 
with taking every other kind of efficient measures, to humble 
their pride and cripple their power. * 

* This, Epaminondas himself pointedly expressed, by saying that ho 
had reduced the Spartans to the necessity of lengthening their mono- 
syllables ; a significant allusion to the peremptory character of their 
manners and language, particularly in the hour of prosperity. — It is 
true, even during their decline, they did not altogether lay aside the use 
of that concise and laconic style ; the contrary is certain from facts, and 
they soon after employed it again in a very forcible manner against 
Philip, king of Macedon. This prince had threatened them in a let- 
ter, that, " if he once entered their territory, he would destroy every 
thing in it with fire and sword." The answer of the Lacedaemonians 



B. c. 382—363. THEBAN WAR. 195 

In all these glorious achievements, Epaminondas was ably 
seconded by Pelopidas ; both of them, indeed, but especially the 
former, gained imperishable laurels and attracted universal admi- 
ration. King Agesilaus, on the contrary, being shut up within 
the precincts of Lacedsemon, had the bitter mortification to see 
all the surrounding country overrun by the Thebans, and to wit- 
ness, with his own eyes, the full practical refutation of what he 
himself had frequently said, " that no Spartan woman ever saw 
the smoke of an enemy's camp." 

When the generals of the Theban army returned from their 
brilliant campaign, they were arraigned before a high-court of 
justice and tried, for having kept the command of the troops a 
little longer than they were permitted by law. Pelopidas did not 
defend his cause with that courage and firmness which he usually 
displayed on the field of battle; hence, he was not without diffi- 
culty acquitted by his judges. Epaminondas acted in a very 
different manner. He appeared before the tribunal with a firm 
countenance, and spoke with dignity. Instead of stooping to an 
apology for the great things he had done, he began to relate and 
extol "them in a strain of animated eloquence ; saying that he 
would die with pleasure, if it should be stated in the verdict 
against him, " that he was condemned to death by the Thebans 
for having obliged them to conquer the Lacedaemonians at Leuctra ; 
for having, by this single victory, not only saved his nation from 
utter ruin, but even secured the liberties of all Greece ; for having 
carried the victorious arms of Thebes to the very gates of Sparta, 
and made the Spartans tremble for their safety; in fine, for 
having restored, in their neighborhood, the strength of the Mes- 
senians, their former and irreconcilable enemies." 

These words of the Theban hero excited the laughter, and at 
the same time, the admiration of the whole assembly. All the 
votes were in his favor j and he returned from his trial as he was 
accustomed to return from battle, with additional glory and uni- 
versal applause. 

Epaminondas had already evinced his unshaken magnanimity 
on another grand occasion, previous to the battle of Leuctra. All 

was the single monosyllable if ! — an ingenious reply, and a master- 
piece of conciseness, far more comprehensive than the longest letter. 
Still, the remark of Epaminondas about this haughty people was, in 
another sense, perfectly correct ; he in fact obliged them by bis victories 
to alter their pretensions, tone, and language, and to have recourse to 
humble as -well as lengthy discourses and negotiations, for the purpose 
of obtaining the assistance of their former adversaries and rivals 
against the Thebans, at that time their formidable enemies. 



196 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part IV. 

the states of Greece, and the Thebans themselves, had sent depu- 
ties to Lacedaemon, for the purpose of adjusting their differences 
and treating of peace. The chief question to be settled between 
them was, whether Sparta should submit to set free the cities of 
Laconia, and Thebes the cities of Boeotia, in accordance with the 
treaty of Antalcidas, mentioned above (p. 190). Epaminondas, 
being one of the ambassadors, easily saw that the other deputies 
were awed by the presence of Agesilaus j he alone preserved a be- 
coming dignity and freedom both in his manner and his proposals. 
Full of a noble assurance, he made a speech in favor not only of 
the Thebans, but of Greece in general, and showed that the peace 
should be founded upon justice and equality, because then only 
would it be durable, when all were put upon an equal footing. 

Agesilaus, perceiving that the Greeks listened to him with 
wonder and great attention, ashed him " whether he thought it 
just and equitable that the cities of Boeotia should be declared 
free and independent." Epaminondas, with great readiness and 
spirit, answered him by asking in his turn, " whether he thought 
it reasonable that the cities of Laconia should be declared inde- 
pendent and free." Agesilaus, incensed at this retort, started 
up, and insisted upon his answering " whether he agreed to 
perfect independence for Boeotia ;" — and Epaminondas replied as 
before, by asking " whether he also agreed to perfect independence 
for Laconia." The Spartan king, exasperated in the highest 
degree, and glad of a pretext against the Thebans, struck their 
name from the treaty, and declared against them that war which, 
quite contrary to his hopes, led to so important results in their 
behalf. 

The magnanimity of Epaminondas shone forth in every circum- 
stance of his life. Being once appointed by his fellow-citizens to 
an humble office, he rendered it honorable by the dignified man- 
ner with which he discharged its various obligations. Again, 
when they deprived him for a time of the office of commander-in- 
chief, he readily served as a private among the troops, and even 
then signalized himself by so many splendid actions, that the 
Thebans, repenting of their injustice, soon replaced him at the 
head of their armies. With these noble feelings and dispositions 
he united modesty, filial piety, and the other amiable virtues of 
domestic life. A contemporary > extolling his merit, said, " that 
he had never seen a man who knew more and spoke less than 
Epaminondas did." After the battle of Leuctra, whilst he was 
an object of admiration for others, and received congratulations 
from all sides, he was heard to say : "My own joy arises from 
the anticipation of that which the news of my success will give 



b. c. 382—363. THEBAN WAR. 197 

to my father and mother." It is peculiarly interesting to find 
sentiments like these amidst the turmoils of political strife and 
all the bloody scenes of war. 

Pelopidas also, on his part, continued his successful exertions 
for the glory of Thebes. Being appointed thirteen times governor 
of Bceotia, he caused his nation to be respected abroad throughout 
the north of Greece, in Thessaly, and even in the kingdom of 
Macedon; and this he effected not less by the reputation of his 
integrity and wisdom than by his valor. But his admirable talent 
for negotiation appeared to the greatest advantage at the court of 
Persia, in the affairs of central and southern Greece. 

The Lacedemonians, humbled by their defeat and apprehensive 
of new dangers, applied for succor to those whom they before 
held as their greatest enemies, the Athenians and the Persians. 
To form a confederacy against Thebes with greater certainty of 
success, ambassadors were sent from Athens and Sparta to King 
Artaxerxes Mnemon ; whilst the Thebans, to counteract this 
design, deputed Pelopidas, nor could they have made a better 
choice. His renown had preceded his arrival in Persia. He no 
sooner entered the territory of that empire, than he was uni- 
versally known and revered, and the king himself received him 
with extraordinary honors. What was still more important, Pelo- 
pidas convinced Artaxerxes that the interest of the Persians re- 
quired them to protect, not the Athenians and Spartans, their 
almost constant foes, but rather the Thebans, who had never 
been their enemies, and who might, in behalf of Persia, form an 
equilibrium between the other two republics. Hence he obtained 
what he desired : " that Messenia should remain, contrary to the 
Spartan interest, a perfectly free and independent state ; that the 
Athenians should no longer infest the Boeotian coast with their 
galleys ; and finally, that the Thebans should be reckoned the 
king's hereditary friends." 

To the honor of so much success in his negotiation, Pelopidas 
added the merit of disinterestedness. Whilst the other ambassa- 
dors willingly received every kind of present from Artaxerxes, he, 
on the contrary, declined the still more splendid presents that 
were offered to him, and accepted only a few tokens of the royal 
favor and regard, such as he could not refuse without offending 
the Persian monarch. This embassy was consequently honorable 
to Pelopidas in every respect. 

The embers of war, which, owing to the incidents just related, 
had been smothered for a time, again burst forth after a few years 
with increased violence. The question now to be decided by the 
sword was, which of the two parties should have the sovereignty 

17* 



198 ANCIENT HISTORY. Paet IV 

of Peloponnesus. The Thebans, having assembled their forces, 
again entered the hostile territory under their favorite leader 
Epaminondas; and this general occupied a strong position at Te- 
gea, in order to attack the Mantineans, who had been unfaithful 
to the alliance of Thebes. Being informed that Agesilaus was 
coining to their relief at the head of the Spartans, the idea sug- 
gested itself to him that Sparta itself might be taken by sur- 
prise. He immediately advanced towards it by a road different 
from that taken by Agesilaus. Nothing indeed was more likely 
than that the place, in this defenceless state, would at the first 
onset fall into his hands. Happily for Sparta, some Cretan or 
Thespian ran to give notice of his intention to Agesilaus, who 
had just time to retrace his steps and reach the city before Epami- 
nondas. 

The Theban leader, finding himself baffled in this attempt, 
returned to the neighborhood of Man tinea; here also his enemies 
had taken their position, so that both parties began to prepare 
for battle. Epaminondas, who intended to make it a decisive one, 
took every precaution to ensure success. The Spartans and their 
allies were not less determined to do their duty. Hence ever\ 
thing foreboded a terrible conflict, the more so as the Greeks had 
never fought among themselves with more numerous armies j for 
the Lacedaemonians amounted to more than twenty thousand 
infantry and two thousand cavalry ; whilst the Theban cavalry 
amounted to three thousand, and their infantry to thirty thousand. 
From these, Epaminondas selected a body of choice troops, and 
formed them into a dense column, in order to make with them 
an irresistible attack on the Lacedaemonian infantry. 

By his orders, the Theban and Thessalian cavalry, then the 
best in Greece, commenced the battle. The enemy's cavalry 
made a brave, but short and ineffectual resistance ; unable to with- 
stand the onset of the Thebans, they retired, with great loss, 
behind their battalions. In the mean time, Epaminondas with 
his infantry had charged the Lacedaemonian phalanx. The troops 
fought on each side with undaunted bravery, both the Thebans 
and the Lacedaemonians being resolved to perish rather than yield 
the victory to their rivals. They began by fighting with their 
spears, and when these weapons were broken in the fury of the 
combat, they rushed to close conflict with their swords. 

The attack and the resistance were equally obstinate ; the car- 
nage was frightful on both sides; yet victory still remained in 
suspense, till Epaminondas, to make it declare in his favor, thought 
it his duty to make an extraordinary effort without regard to the 
danger of his life. Gathering round him the bravest and most 



b. c. 382—363. THEBAN WAR. 199 

determined warriors, he made with them so vigorous a charge, 
that the Lacedaemonians, unable to withstand the shock, began 
to waver and retire. The phalanx was at length broken. The 
other Theban troops, animated by their general's example and 
success, renewed likewise their efforts, and assailed the enemy on 
the right and left with great slaughter. At that decisive moment, 
whilst Epaminondas continued to fight with the most heroic valor, 
he received a mortal wound in the breast from a javelin which 
pierced his cuirass. He immediately fell in the sight of all. The 
battle raged with redoubled fury about the dying hero, one side 
making every effort to take him prisoner, the other to rescue him 
from their grasp; the Thebans gained their point, and bore away 
their leader, after having put the enemy to flight. 

They did not pursue the vanquished far, but contented them- 
selves with preserving their late position. Their cavalry also, 
dismayed by the terrible accident which had just happened, de- 
sisted from the pursuit; and even one of their detachments was 
put to the sword by the enemy's left wing, composed of Athenians. 
Still, victory undoubtedly belonged to the Thebans, since they 
had defeated both the cavalry and the main body of the other 
troops of their opponents, and moreover remained masters of the 
field. 

Epaminondas had been carried into the camp. The surgeons, 
after examining the wound, declared that he would expire as soon 
as the dart would be extracted. These words filled all present 
with sorrow and affliction ; they were overwhelmed with grief to 
behold so great a man about to die, and to die without issue. As 
for him, his only concern was about his arms and the success of 
the battle. When they showed him his shield, he kissed it as the 
faithful companion of his dangers and exploits; and, being in- 
formed that the Thebans were victorious, he said with a placid 
countenance : "I have lived long enough, since I die unconquered. 
I leave Thebes triumphant, proud Sparta humbled, and Greece 
delivered from the yoke of servitude. As to the rest, I do not 
look on myself as dying without issue ; Leuctra and Mantinea 
are two illustrious daughters, that will not fail to keep my 
name alive, and to transmit it to posterity." Having said this, 
he drew the javelin from the wound, and immediately expired 
(b.c. 363). 

Only one year before, Pelopidas, during a new expedition 
against a Thessalian prince, had likewise fallen at the moment 
and expired, as it were, in the arms of victory. 



200 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part IV. 

GENERAL STATE OF GREECE AT THE CLOSE OF THE 
THEBAN WAR. 

The glory of Thebes, for which she was indebted to Pelopidas 
and Epaminondas, departed from her with these illustrious men. 
The latter, especially, a man of universal talent and the most 
conspicuous, in Cicero's opinion,* that ever appeared in Greece, 
had raised his nation to the summit of fame and prosperity • with 
him that prosperity suddenly disappeared. As a dart, whose 
point is broken, can no longer inflict a wound, so the Thebans, 
deprived of this eminent leader, were no longer formidable to 
their enemies, and their power seemed annihilated by the death 
of Epaminondas.f — Shortly after the battle of Mantinea, the 
Thebans concluded a treaty of peace with most of the Grecian 
states, relapsed into their former obscurity, and were afterwards 
famous only for their disasters. 

But the Lacedasmonians on their part had irrevocably lost their 
power over Greece. The defeats of Leuctra and Mantinea had so 
humbled them, that they never could regain their ascendency; 
nor could all the talent and undaunted spirit of Agesilaus repair 
the evil consequences of his ambition and obstinacy. Besides 
these reverses, the internal constitution of the Spartan people had 
begun to undergo some alterations, especially since the introduc- 
tion of the use of gold and silver among them by Lysander. 
Other changes followed ; the national character gradually disap- 
peared; and the Lacedcemonians, more and more shorn of their 
strength, except during one reign to be afterwards mentioned, no 
longer accomplished any thing very remarkable or worthy of their 
previous reputation. 

The Athenians also had, since the time of Cimon and Pericles, 
greatly degenerated from their pristine vigor. They retained, it 
is true, sufficient courage to gain many laurels during the Theban 
war, and sufficient generosity or political foresight and prudence 
to act as auxiliaries in behalf of the weaker side, that is, of the 
Thebans in the beginning, and of the Spartans in the end of this 
protracted conflict. All that time, the Athenians had the ad- 
vantage of possessing excellent officers of their own nation, such as 
Chabrias, Iphicrates, and Timotheus, the son of the illustrious 
Conon. But when these able leaders disappeared from the busy 

* Acad. Qiicesf. 1. i, n. 4. 

j Sicuti telo si primam aciem praefregeris, reliquo ferro yim noccndi 
sustuleris ; sic illo, velut mucrone teli, ablato duce Tkebanorum, rei 
quoque publicte vires hebetates sunt ; tit non tain ilium amisisse, quam 
cum illo interiisse omnes viderentur. — Justin, b. vii, c 8. 



BELIGION OF THE GREEKS. 201 

scene of life, Athens again experienced various losses, and whilst 
its inhabitants indulged more than ever in a spirit of levity and 
idleness, several cities and islands subject to them asserted their 
independence. . 

So many dissensions and wars produced their disastrous though 
natural effect. All Greece found itself, in consequence of them, 
much weakened, distracted, and exposed to pass, if an occasion 
presented itself, which soon happened, under the control of some 
ambitious and powerful neighbor. 



RELIGION, MANNERS, AND INSTITUTIONS OF 
GREECE. 

We have thus gone through the most interesting period of 
Greek history; a period comprising nearly a century and a half, 
from the year B. c. 500 to the year b. c. 360. We will now de- 
scribe, in a few words, the characteristic features of a country and 
people so justly celebrated in the annals of antiquity. Of their 
political and social character, their love of glory and^ liberty, 
their valor'ancl other natural endowments and qualifications, the 
reader may have already formed a competent idea in the preced- 
ing pages. Their literary character and wonderful proficiency in 
the fine arts have likewise been mentioned. We have yet^ to 
speak of their religion, national manners, institutions, and philo- 
sophical schools. 

I I. RELIGION OF THE GREEKS.— ORACLES. 

The religion of the Greeks was polytheism or a belief in many 
gods, with its usual attendant, idolatry or supreme worship paid 
to idols j for, as we learn from both sacred and profane authors,* 
the Gentiles believed their idols to be animated by some virtue, 
spirit, or divinity. The principal deities, whose worship the 
Greeks received from the Egyptians and Phenicians, and in their 
turn communicated to others, were Saturn, the father of Jupiter, 
Neptune, and Pluto ; Jupiter, supposed to be the greatest god, 
the god of Olympus or heaven, and the principal ruler of the 
earth ; Neptune, the god of the sea j Pluto, the god of Tartarus 
or hell j then Mars, the god of war; Apollo, the god of poetry; 

• Jerem. ii, 27 ;— Daniel xiv, 5, 23. Diogen. Laert. in Slilpon.;— 
Tausanias, b. iii, ch. 16; and others quoted by St. August. De Civitale 
Dei, lib. viii, c. 23, 24. 



202 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part IV. 

Mercurius, the god of eloquence, etc., with a multitude of demi- 
gods, or heroes of their early times. To all these, and, under 
their name, to personified vices, and to the demon himself, the 
chief author of so deplorable a superstition, did the heathens 
offer sacrifice and adoration. This evil, it is true, was common 
to most of the ancient nations; but the Greeks were the first to 
embellish that absurd system with all the brilliancy of imagina- 
tion and all the charms of poetry. 

Another peculiarity of their religion was an implicit confi- 
dence in oracles, especially that of Apollo at Delphi. Here a 
priestess was regularly appointed to return answers in behalf of 
those who came to consult the Oracle, though she could not do 
so, unless when under the exciting influence of a certain vapor 
which came forth from the sanctuary of Apollo. When this 
happened, her hair stood erect; her look was ghastly; she foamed 
at the mouth ; her whole body was agitated by violent convul- 
sions ; in a word, she evinced all the symptoms of mania and 
frenzy, contrary to the mild, grave, and dignified bearing of the 
true prophets. In that state, she uttered, at intervals, some 
half-articulated words, which the attendants carefully collected 
and arranged, so as to elicit a meaning. 

The characteristic feature of these oracles, at least in reference 
to future events, was equivocation and obscurity ; so that the 
same answer might be equally applied to different objects. To 
use the words of an illustrious doctor of the church, S. Jeroni, 
in his comment on the prophets : "If it appears to any one that 
many things were predicted by the idols, let him bear in mind 
that they always blended lies with the truth, and so worded their 
answers, that, whatever should happen, whether good or bad, it 
might be said with equal reason to have been foretold."* By 
this means, the evil spirits, who cannot have a certain knowledge 
of future contingencies, covered their own ignorance, and im- 
posed on the credulity of their deluded worshippers. 

Thus, when Croesus, king of Lydia (see p. 99), consulted the 
oracle of Delphi about the result of his intended war against 
Cyrus, he received for answer that, if he were to cross the river 
llalys, he would ruin a great empire : 

Croesus, Halyni penetrans, magnam subvertet opum vim. 

Which empire ? His own or that of Cyrus ? This was left to 
be guessed by Croesus himself. He naturally gave to the oracle 
the construction most favorable to his wishes ; but he failed, was 
conquered, and the kingdom of Lydia was overthrown. Still, 

* S. Jerom, on the 42d ch. of Isaias. 



MANNERS OF THE GREEKS. 203 

even in this case, the assertion was right, since a great empire 
was really destroyed. 

The same must be said of the answer given by the oracle to 
Pyrrhus, king of Epirus : 

Aio te, JSacida, Romanos vincere posse. 

Which signifies either that Pyrrhus might conquer the Romans, 
or that the Romans might conquer Pyrrhus; an answer that re- 
quired no aid from an oracle. 

How great the difference between these ambiguous oracles, 
and the clear, unequivocal, and positive predictions of the inspired 
prophets, Moses, Isaias, Jeremias, Daniel, etc. ! God himself 
has deigned to mark this difference in Holy Writ, when he says : 
" Bring your cause near, saith the Lord ..... show the things 
that are to come hereafter; and we shall know that ye are gods."* 
And in another place : "lam God, and there is no God beside, 
neither is there the like to me : who show from the beginning 
the things that shall be at last, and from ancient times the 
things that as yet are not done, saying : My counsel shall stand; 
and all my will shall be done."f 

I II. NATIONAL MANNERS OF THE GREEKS.— SOLEMN GAMES. 

The Greeks, notwithstanding the peculiarities of their different 
states, were bound together by many social ties, which produced 
and maintained among them a deep feeling of nationality. Such 
were the natural boundaries of Greece, the similarity of their 
government and laws, their equal love of liberty, the council of 
the Amphictyons, etc. 

Nothing, perhaps, contributed more effectually to strengthen 
these ties than the regular celebration of public and solemn 
games in various parts of Greece. Games of this kind were, 
among the ancients, a part of the public worship ; but, among 
the Greeks, they were, moreover, a school of dexterity, a nursery 
of courage, a means of emulation in every bodily exercise, a 
theatre for the display of mental acquirements, and finally, one 
of the prime movers of their social life. Bearing thus the 
character of both religious and national festivities, and being 
celebrated with the utmost magnificence, they attracted from all 
sides an immense concourse of spectators; and, in order that 
they might be carried on with perfect tranquillity, there was, 
during the time of their celebration, a general suspension of 
arms and cessation of every hostility throughout Greece. 
* Isa. xli, 21, 23. fjfea. xlvi, 9, 10. 



204 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part IV. 

These solemn games were four in number, viz.: the Pythian, 
kept at Delphi every four years, in honor of Apollo; the Nemean, 
so called from the town of Nemea in Peloponnesus, and kept 
every other year, in honor of Hercules j the Isthmian, from the 
Corinthian isthmus, kept every four years, in honor of Neptune ; 
and the Olympic games, the most celebrated of all, also kept 
every four years, at Pisa or Olympia, a Peloponnesian city, in 
honor of Jupiter. 

The persons destined to contend in these games, and especially 
in the Olympic games, were called athlets. Before appearing as 
such, they had to undergo severe trials and preparations : their 
diet, in particular, was very austere ; they lived upon dry figs, 
walnuts, soft cheese and coarse bread, and were totally forbidden 
the use of wine. The other requisite qualifications to become 
an athlet, were to be of Grecian extraction, of free condition, 
and irreproachable manners. 

The various kinds of contests used in the Grecian games, were 
wrestling, boxing with a leather gauntlet armed with iron or 
lead, throwing a heavy disk of lead or copper, and racing, either 
on horseback or on foot, or in chariots. The last was the most 
conspicuous of these exhibitions, and kings themselves contended 
in it for the prize. The most dangerous was boxing with the 
gauntlet, especially when combined with wrestling, in which case 
it took the name of Pancratium ; in effect, these violent exercises 
frequently ended in the maiming, and sometimes even in the 
death of the combatants. 

The conqueror in any of these games was crowned, as it were, 
in the sight of all Greece. He was reconducted to his country 
with great pomp, and entered his city, not by one of the gates, 
but through a breach purposely made for him in the city wall. 
During the remainder of his life, he was free from taxes and 
supported at the expense of the public; finally, his name was 
celebrated by poets, and statues were erected in his honor. 

Could there be more flattering rewards than these for men 
who knew no other praise than the praise of men ? Hence, they 
imagined nothing more desirable than a victory won at the 
Olympic games, and thought it impossible for man to obtain 
greater honor. Unhappy people, not to have understood that all 
is frivolous which passes with time, and that only those crowns 
which will last for eternity, are worthy of man's esteem, desire 
and constant exertions. 



GRECIAN INSTITUTIONS, &c. 205 



I III. GRECIAN INSTITUTIONS AND SCHOOLS OF PHILOSOPHY. 

No country was ever more remarkable than Greece for its 
philosophical institutions and schools. It abounded with men 
of great mental powers, who, with more or less sincerity, more 
or less success, made open profession to love and seek the truth ; 
whence came their name of philosophers, — friends of wisdom. 
Whatever might be their motives and their earnestness in the 
study of philosophy, one thing at least is certain, namely, that 
there was scarcely any attainable truth, physical or moral, which 
they did not make the object of their researches, of their medi- 
tations, of their disputes, and frequently of their sophisms and 
contradictions. 

The most ancient of those real or imaginary sages who became 
the founders of distinct sects, was Thales, a native of Miletus, 
without doubt a great philosopher and astronomer for his time, 
yet imbued with most strange notions, so far as to believe and 
assert that water is the principle of all things. Next came Py- 
thagoras, another great man in many respects, but who spread 
throughout Greece and southern Italy the absurd dogma of 
metempsychosis, that is transmigration of souls into different 
bodies of men or animals during the space of three thousand 
years. At a later period lived Epicurus, and his ill-famed school, 
placing man's sovereign happiness in sensual gratifications, as if 
men were no better than swine : "Epicuri de grege porcus." 

Another pretended philosopher, Diogenes, was justly surnamed 
the Cynic (dog-like), on account of the boldness with which he 
trampled under foot every rule of decorum j finally, Pyrrho, who 
affected to doubt every thing, and pretended not to know even 
whether he was awake or asleep. 

Socrates, and Plato his disciple, taught a philosophy much 
more worthy of reasonable beings. We have already spoken at 
some length of Socrates and of his doctrines : as to Plato, he not 
only equalled, but even surpassed the reputation of his master. 
His writings, it is true, contain several errors j but, independently 
of tRe surprising beauties of style, they also show forth a variety 
of truths so grand, so sublime, in a word, so conformable in some 
respects to divine revelation, that there is much reason to believe 
that he was indebted for them to the inspired writings of the 
Hebrews, with which he had probably become acquainted during 
his travels in the east. As he delivered his lectures in a beautiful 
spot situated near Athens, and called the Academy, his disciples 
took on that account the name of Academics. 

18 



200 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part IV. 

The most illustrious of Plato's disciples was Aristotle, whom 
Plato himself called the soul and the gem of his audience. Aris- 
totle became afterwards the founder of another celebrated school, 
viz : the Peripatetics, thus named from a walk in the Lyceum, 
a beautiful place in Athens adorned with porticos and gardens, 
where that philosopher gave his instructions. Quintilian says 
that he does not know what to admire most in Aristotle, his ex- 
tensive knowledge and profound erudition, his penetration, the 
agreeableness of his style, or the multitude and variety of his 
writings. 

Shortly after Aristotle, Zeno, another renowned philosopher, 
established the sect of the Stoics, whose appellation was also de- 
rived from the place (a portico) in which they assembled. Of 
all the schools of Grecian philosophy, the Stoic school seemed to 
be the most favorable to morality, fortitude, and noble feelings. 
For, whilst the Academics and Peripatetics set a real though 
secondary value on health, honor and fortune ; Zeno maintained 
that men should give their undivided esteem and affection to vir- 
tue, in whatever rank or circumstance they may be found. This 
principle, if faithfully carried out, could not fail to have a salu- 
tary influence ; hence, the Stoic school, notwithstanding its errors 
on several points, produced many great men, such as Panetius, 
the master and friend of Scipio the Younger ; Cato Uticensis ; 
Epictetus ; the emperor Marcus-Aurelius, etc. 

Most of these philosophers knew the dogma of the unity of 
God, the supreme Lo*rd and Ruler of the universe ; but they had 
not the courage openly to profess it, and to labor in turning men 
from idolatry. They were, moreover, totally unacquainted with 
spiritual and supernatural goods ; and in the natural and moral 
order, they proposed, it is true, many beautiful maxims, but fre- 
quently blended with false principles, or a false application of the 
general truths. So faint was the light of reason left to itself, 
even in the greatest geniuses of antiquity ! So little fitted were 
they to dispel the spiritual darkness which covered the face of 
the earth, and which kept all nations, with the exception of the 
Jews, in the region of the shadow of death I* The fall of idolatry 
was, indeed, to take place ; but this great work could be effected 
only by the preaching of the Gospel, and by the ministry of 
Apostles very different from those sages who " detained the truth 
of God in injustice/' and gave not glory to their Creator.")" 

* Matt, iv, 16. f Rom. i, 18, 21. 



B. c. 449—338. ROMAN COMMONWEALTH. 207 

THE ROMAN COMMONWEALTH: 

FROM THE EXPULSION OF THE DECEMVIRI TO THE ENTIRE SUBJECTION 
OF THE LATINS. — B. C. 449 — 338. 

CENSORS, QUiESTORS, AND MILITARY TRIBUNES. 

At Rome, the expulsion of the Decemviri, besides restoring 
the consular and tribunitial power, was soon followed by the estab- 
lishment of new magistracies, made necessary by the increasing 
exigencies of the state. The office of censor was one of these new 
institutions (b. c. 442). The Censors were invested with power 
to take, every five years, the census of the Roman people, and to 
strike from the list of any tribe or rank, every citizen, knight and 
even senator, who had given considerable subject of complaint 
by the irregularity of his conduct. For this reason, the Roman 
Censorship became one of the most important offices in the state. 
It was often filled by men of great merit, such as Cato the Elder, 
Scipio Nasica, etc., and proved, for a long time, the strongest 
support of the laws, and the best guardian of justice, morals and 
public decency. 

Shortly after the institution of the censorian dignity, the num- 
ber of Quaestors or treasurers was increased from two to four. 
The functions of these officers had hitherto been confined within 
the city of Rome ; by the increase of their number, the sphere 
of their jurisdiction was enlarged. Out of the four Quaestors, 
two continued, as before, to reside within the city and watch over 
the public treasury, revenue, and taxes ; the other two followed 
the Roman generals and consuls at the head of the troops, to have 
the care of their military chest, and provide for the subsistence 
of their armies. 

During these improvements of the Roman Constitution, dis- 
putes continued almost without intermission between the two 
orders of the state. The Plebeians insisted that the consuls might 
be chosen from their own order ; the Patricians strongly opposed 
this motion, yet they perceived that they must soon yield the 
point. To cover their perplexity or their defeat, they themselves 
proposed that, instead of two consuls, three military tribunes, 
taken from either order, the Patrician or the Plebeian, should be 
annually appointed, and invested with consular authority. 

The people, satisfied with their advantage and the acknow- 
ledgment of their claim, acted with extreme moderation. Ac- 
knowledging in their turn, that superiority of talents and merit 
was on the side of their opponents, they made up their minds 



208 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part IV. 

accordingly in the choice of the military tribunes, and, as long as 
this new form of magistracy lasted (b. c. 444 — 366), almost in- 
variably gave their votes to the Patricians. " Where/' exclaims 
Livy, " could we find now in a single individual, the same equity, 
modesty, and magnanimity, which were then found in a whole 
nation V* 

CONQUEST OF THE CITIES OF VEII AND FALERII. 
b. c. 396— 394.— CAMILLTJS. 

It was under the military tribunes that the Roman troops 
began to receive a salary from the state. As this regulation had 
been spontaneously decreed by the senate, it filled the people 
with gratitude and joy. Until then, the soldiers had been 
obliged to provide for themselves, and to subsist at their own 
cost during every campaign ; and, as they could not in the mean 
while take proper care of their farms, this onerous service was 
the principal cause of their subsequent debts and misery, whence 
arose so many disturbances threatening the safety of the republic 
itself. Moreover, as long as this custom lasted, the Roman 
armies, might, it is true, gain repeated victories over their sur- 
rounding foes, but they could not, for want of sufficient provisions, 
pursue their conquests to any distance ; so that they were com- 
pelled to return home after a few days, or at most a few weeks 
of warfare. 

But no sooner was the regular pay of the troops established, 
than military expeditions were planned upon a much more extensive 
scale, and such as could not be thought of before. The first un- 
dertaking of this kind was the siege of Veii, an Etrurian city 
and the capital of the Veientes, scarcely inferior to Rome itself 
in extent, population, wealth and power. On this occasion, the 
Romans used a mode of attack hitherto unheard of in their history. 
They turned the siege into a blockade, having drawn two lines 
of intrenchments round the city, the one of contravallation, 
against the sallies of the garrison, and the other of circumvallation, 
against any attempt that might be made by the neighboring tribes 
in behalf of the besieged. Notwithstanding these precautions, 
and in spite of all their exertions and hardships under the walls 
of Veii, the Romans found themselves as little advanced after 
the lapse of nine years, as they were at the commencement of 
this protracted siege. 

Ultimate success might have proved hopeless, had not Furius 

* Hanc moclestiani, requitatem, et altitudinem nninii, ubi nunc in nno 
inveneris, quie tunc populi universi fuit ? — Livy, b. iv c. 7. 



B . c. 449—338. ROMAN COMMONWEALTH. 209 

Camillus been appointed to the supreme office of dictator. This 
illustrious Roman was distinguished alike for his valor, his skill, 
and the experience which he had acquired in inferior employments. 
As soon as he assumed the command of the troops, he revived 
courage and discipline among them, increased the fortifications 
of their camp, defeated the allies of the Veientes, and pressed the 
siege of Veii more than ever. Still, as he perceived the great 
difficulty of taking so strong a city by storm, he caused a mine 
to be dug by his troops, extending from the Roman camp to the 
enemy's citadel. When it was completed, he ordered a general 
assault on the place. Whilst the Veientes, not aware of their 
real danger, ran to the different parts of the wall in order to repel 
the assailants, a body of choice soldiers entered, by order of Ca- 
millus, the subterranean passage, penetrated into the citadel, and 
thence spread through the city. Some attacked the garrison from 
behind, some began to fire the houses, whilst others hastened to 
open the gates of the town to their fellow-soldiers. In a few mo- 
ments, this mighty capital was entirely in the power of the Ro- 
mans. The quantity of spoils which they found in it was beyond 
description, and the dictator, loaded with gkuy, enjoyed triumphal 
honors suitable to the importance of his conquest (b. c. 896). 

Two years later, the same Camillus laid siege to Falerii, the 
capital city of the Falisci. Here he effected by his justice and 
generosity, what he had effected at Veii by his prudence and 
valor. One day, a schoolmaster, who had under his charge the 
children of all the chief families in Falerii, led them, under pre- 
tence of exercise, to a certain distance from the city, and be- 
trayed them into the hands of the Roman general. Camillus, 
fired with indignation at this base conduct, exclaimed : " Have 
we, then, taken up arms against children, whom we spare even 
in the storming of cities, and not rather against men who have 
provoked our resentment, and who, moreover, can defend them- 
selves ? God forbid that I should avail myself of this base offer 
of a traitor, to conquer the Falisci I" Having said this, he dis- 
missed the perfidious master, and obliged him to return to the 
town, with his hands tied behind him, and under the incessant 
lashes of his young pupils. This act of humanity and justice so 
moved the Falisci, that they no longer hesitated to surrender to 
so generous an enemy. 

Although Camillus had already achieved so much for the 
service of his country, he was accused by a plebeian tribune of 
having converted to his own use a part of the spoils taken at 
Veii. The charge was groundless; still the people were highly 
licensed against him. Aware of the danger, Camillus, rather 

18* 



210 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part TV. 

than undergo the ignominy of an unjust condemnation, went into 
voluntary exile, and retired to Ardea, a city not far distant from 
Rome. His mind, on this occasion, was so painfully affected by 
the ingratitude of the citizens, that he expressed a wish that 
some great misfortune might befall them, calculated to make 
them regret his absence; a wish far less noble and generous 
than that of Aristides, who, on a similar occasion, prayed to 
heaven that nothing might happen to the Athenians which 
might cause them to need his return and services. 

ROME TAKEN BY THE GAULS.— b. c. 390. 

Camillus had scarcely gone into exile, when the inhabitants 
of Clusium, an Etrurian city, being besieged by a formidable 
army of Gauls, applied to the Romans for succor. Instead of 
troops, ambassadors were despatched from Rome, for the purpose 
of interceding with the Gauls in behalf of the besieged. But 
these deputies, all of them young men of a warlike disposition, 
not satisfied with their pacific commission, began to fight on the 
side of the Clusians, and in a sally killed a Gaulish chieftain. 
The Gauls were highly exasperated by this violation of professed 
neutrality; not receiving satisfaction, they abandoned the siege 
of Clusium, and marched towards Rome with threats of ven- 
geance. They met the Roman army, which consisted of forty 
thousand men, near the small river Allia. This army, com- 
manded by unskilful generals, and terrified by the yells, the 
stature and the multitude of these new foes, whose number 
amounted to more than seventy thousand, did not sustain even 
their first attack. Both officers and soldiers fled in every direc- 
tion. It was rather a rout than a combat ; a rout not less dis- 
astrous than shameful, on account of the great slaughter which 
was made of the fugitives. 

The victorious Gauls, instead of closely pursuing their advan- 
tage, spent three days in gathering the spoils and taking unneces- 
sary precautions against imaginary dangers. This delay saved 
the Roman power from utter destruction. Those who were able 
to fight had time to withdraw into the citadel, with a supply of 
arms and provisions ; others made their escape to the neighbor- 
ing towns ; and there remained in Rome only eighty senators 
or patricians, far advanced in years, who devoted themselves as 
so many victims to be immolated for their country, and whom, 
in fact, the Gauls put to the sword, when they entered the city. 
Afterwards, these barbarians fired the houses, and reduced them 
to ashes; finally, they endeavored to storm the citadel. 



B. c. 449—338. ROMAN COMMONWEALTH. 211 

Being repulsed in the first assault, they made a second attack 
during the night, and were so far successful that some of their 
number reached the top of the battlements, without being heard 
by the sentinels, or even by the watch-dogs. Had the Gauls 
remained undiscovered one moment longer, the ruin of the 
Romans might then have been complete. In this extreme danger, 
the sudden gabbling of some geese and the flapping of their 
wings awoke Manlius, a patrician of consular dignity and extra- 
ordinary courage ; in an instant he sounded the alarm, ran to 
the rampart, and drove off the first barbarians whom he found 
ready to enter the citadel. The other Romans arrived, and 
easily overthrew the rest of the assailants, by precipitating them 
irom the rock on which the citadel was built into the precipice 
below. 

Still this transient advantage could not have delivered the 
country from its invaders, without the patriotic exertions of 
Camillus. This great man, now an exile, but generously pre- 
vailing upon himself to overcome his resentment and overlook the 
wrongs which he had suffered, hastened to assemble troops, 
whether Romans or allies, to fight the invaders. He came to 
the relief of the capitol at a very critical moment. The besieged, 
much weakened by famine, the natural consequence of a block- 
ade of six months, had finally agreed to treat with the Gauls, 
and were actually about to pay a considerable sum for the 
preservation of their liberty. Before this transaction was com- 
pleted, Camillus arrived, and perceiving the present disgraceful 
state of things, cried out that by steel alone, and not by gold, 
was Rome to be recovered from the hands of its enemies. He 
then charged with great vigor the astonished Gauls, obliged 
them to abandon their prey, and shortly after, in a decisive 
battle fought at a short distance from Rome, amply revenged 
the disaster that his countrymen had suffered on the banks of 
the Allia.* 

By this sudden change of fortune, the Roman power, which 
appeared on the point of being extinguished for ever, was re- 

* The above narrative is taken from Livy (b. v, c. 49), and Plutarch 
(in Camill.) These are grave authorities. Still, the latter part of their 
account is differently related by the learned and judicious historian 
Polybius (b. i, c. 1), whose testimony in this particular is corroborated 
by that of Justin (b. xliii, c. 5). According to Polybius, the agreement 
between the besiegers and the besieged was fulfilled; the Romans ac- 
tually gave a considerable sum for their ransom, and the Gauls, with 
the money in their possession, returned safely to their own territory. 
Livy himself acknowledges (b. vi, c. 1) that the early history of Rome, 
till the Gaulish invasion, is involved in great obscurity. 



212 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part IV. 

vived, as it were, in a moment, and resumed its former course 
of success and prosperity. Camillus now received from the 
gratitude of his citizens the praise which he deserved, of being 
the father of his country and the second founder of Rome. By 
his eloquent exhortations, added to the power of religious mo- 
tives, he succeeded in diverting the people from removing their 
residence to Veii, and the Roman city was rebuilt on the spot 
it had formerly occupied. 

PLEBEIAN CONSULS.— PATRICIAN JEDILES.— PR^TORS. 

Rome had scarcely emerged from its ruins, when its military 
strength was revived. The neighboring states vainly endeavored 
to take advantage of its recent humiliation ; they all experienced 
again the superiority of its arms, particularly when the Roman 
legions were led to the field by the great Camillus. They were 
truly invincible under him. He never fought a battle without 
coming on 7 victorious, and never besieged a city without making 
himself master of it. After having been appointed dictator no 
fewer than five times, this illustrious Roman died at a very ad- 
vanced age, and was universally regretted (b. c. 365). 

In the mean while, the commonwealth had continued to be 
much distracted at home by disputes between the senate and 
the people. For a long time, the plebeians asked, through their 
tribunes, to be admitted with the patricians to the highest offices 
in the state ; they at length carried their point, and were con- 
sequently allowed to be candidates for the dictatorial, consular, 
and censorian dignity. It is true that, in order to indemnify 
the patricians for this partial loss of their privileges, two new 
offices were established in their favor, that of Prsetor, for the 
administration of justice, and that of Patrician JEdile, for a 
better superintendence of the public shows and buildings; but 
even these offices became, in the course of time, common to both 
orders of the state. 

From the time of this important victory of the people with 
regard to the first magistracies in the government, the consulate 
was revived, and the military tribuneship abolished for ever. 
The condescension of the patricians on these points produced at 
least one good effect — it restored, in some measure, civil har- 
mony between the two parties, and permitted them to combine 
their efforts more vigorously than ever for new and foreign con* 
quests. 



B . c. 449-338. ROMAN COMMONWEALTH. 213 

FINAL AND COMPLETE SUBJECTION OF THE LATIN TRIBES 
TO THE ROMAN POWER.— b. c. 340—338. 

One of the greatest enterprises that now claimed the attention 
of the Romans, was the reduction of the whole country in their 
neighborhood, called Latium * Its inhabitants had been, for 
more than a hundred years, the allies or rather the vassals of 
Rome M length, wearied with a state of inferiority which they 
looked upon as degrading to their nation, they laid claim to an 
equal share of honor and authority with Rome herselt, and 
boldly demanded, as the price of peace, that one of the two 
consuls and one half of the senators should be chosen from 
among the Latin people. 

To these haughty proposals no other answer was returned 
than a declaration of war. The two consuls, Manlms Torquatus 
and Decius Mus, immediately took the field at the head of their 
legions, and reached the neighborhood of Capua, where the 
Latins and their allies had already assembled. As the two armies 
were nearly equal in valor, discipline and the use of their 
weapons, the utmost precautions were deemed indispensable by 
the consuls to meet so critical an emergency; they forbade, 
under penalty of death, any one in the army, under any pretence 
whatever, to fight out of his rank and without their permission. 

It happened, however, that the son of Manlms, being chal- 
lenged by a Latin warrior, could not refrain from rushing to 
the°conflict. He fought and conquered. Returning in triumph 
to his father, he expected to receive praise j but Manlms viewed 
this conduct of his son in a very different light, that of a flagrant 
breach of obedience and military discipline. As a father, he 
grieved at his fate; as a magistrate, he judged and condemned 
him without mercy, and caused him to be beheaded on the spot 
in presence of the whole army. Such was the specimen of un- 
flinching rigor given by one of the consuls in the person of his 
son. The other, soon after, displayed an equally unbending 
patriotism in his own person. 

Decius said he had a dream, in which he was told that victory 
would belong to the party whose general would devote himself 
to death during the combat. He therefore agreed with his col- 
league, that either of the two whose troops would show less 
eonrage or obtain less success, should become the devoted victim 
The battle was fought near Mount Vesuvius. So great were the 
* The Samnite war also began about this time. As it lasted long, 
and for the most part belongs to the following epoch, the whole 
account of it will be more properly given in another place. 



214 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part IV. 

courage and animosity on both sides, that victory remained a 
long time doubtful ; till, after vigorous exertions, the left wing 
of the Romans, commanded by Decius, was unable to resist any 
longer the violent attack of the Latins, and began to give way. 
In this pressing danger, Decius recollected his dream and his 
promise, nor did he hesitate a single instant to act accordingly. 
After asking, with a loud voice, that the wrath of the gods might 
be diverted from the Romans and fall only on himself and the 
enemies of the republic, he rushed into the thickest of the Latin 
battalions, and fell covered with wounds. 

The change produced in the state of the battle by this act of 
devotedness was almost instantaneous. The same superstitious 
motive which led to the consul's voluntary death, had also an 
extraordinary effect on the troops, spreading renewed vigor among 
the Romans, and terror among the enemy. The former returned 
to the charge with such determined courage, and by the skilful 
dispositions of the other consul in so admirable order, that the 
Latins were at last entirely defeated, and lost three-fourths of 
their army (b. c. 340). This terrible overthrow was followed 
by other defeats, and soon after, by the surrender of all the Latin 
cities and territory to the Romans (b. c. 338). 

AFFAIRS OF SICILY AND CARTHAGE. 

b. c. 410—337. 

Sicily had also continued to be a theatre of important events. 
The previous losses of the Carthaginians had not extinguished 
their desire to become masters of that rich and fertile island ; 
they again made powerful and vigorous efforts to accomplish this 
object towards the year b. c. 410. The cities of Selinuntes, 
Himera, and G-ela successively fell into their hands. Even Agri- 
gentum, a still more important place, and a city famous for its 
wealth, its fortifications, find its population of two hundred thou- 
sand inhabitants, was taken by the invaders after a brave and 
protracted resistance. 

The Carthaginians, emboldened by their success, at last under- 
took the conquest of Syracuse. Not daunted by the terrible dis- 
aster which had lately befallen the Athenians in a similar attempt 
upon that city, in the year b. c. 396 they attacked it with a 
fleet of three or four hundred vessels, and a land army of about 
three hundred thousand men. They seemed the more entitled 
to hope for a happy result, as this powerful armament was under 
the command of Himilco, the same general who had taken Agri- 
gentum a few years before. 



B.C. 410— 337. CURTHAGE AND SICILY. 215 

Syracuse was then under the sway of Dio-nysius surnamed the 
Elder, a usurper and a tyrant, still a man of remarkable skill in 
war and government, joined to boundless ambition. For some 
years previous to the conflict, he had made extraordinary sup- 
plies of ammunition, arms, troops and vessels. Yet, at the ap- 
proach of the amazing force of Himilco, he thought it more pru- 
dent to retire from the open field, and concentrate his strength 
within his capital city. 

On the other hand, the Carthaginian leader, elated by the 
advantage which he had already gained and looking upon Syra- 
cuse as an assured prey, encamped in its neighborhood, and 
began to lay waste all the country round, sparing neither the 
temples nor the tombs within his reach, nor even the splendid 
mausoleum of King Grelo. His pride and fierceness did not long 
remain unpunished: a pestilence broke out in his camp, and 
soon made incredible ravages among his troops. Dionysius, on 
his part, did not lose so favorable an opportunity of attacking 
them both by sea and land. The success of the attack exceeded 
his most sanguine expectations; the enemy's fleet was nearly all 
burnt or captured, and their land army almost totally destroyed; 
only forty vessels and the remnant of the native Carthaginian 
troops returned to Carthage, where the news of so unexpected a 
disaster spread the utmost consternation. As to Himilco, their 
general, who had returned with them, he no sooner entered the 
city than he repaired to his house, and, without seeing any one 
of his family, killed himself in despair. 

The Carthaginians, although intensely grieved, still were not 
discouraged by their late disaster. After a short interval, they 
continued their attacks upon Sicily, though, at first, without 
much success ; Mago, their general and one of the chief magis- 
trates of Carthage, lost a great battle together with his life. 
This new disaster compelled the surviving leaders to sue for 
peace, which was granted on condition that, besides defraying 
the expenses of the war, they should evacuate all Sicily. They 
pretended to accept the proffered conditions, but representing 
that it was not in their power to deliver up the cities without 
first obtaining an order from their republic, they obtained a truce 
long enough to make the state of affairs fully known and under- 
stood at Carthage. The Carthaginians instantly raised fresh 
troops, and placed them under the command of another Mago, 
the son of the one lately killed. The new general was young, 
but possessed of great abilities and renown ; he landed in Sicily, 
and at the expiration of the truce, gave battle to Dionysius, in 
which the Syracusans were signally defeated, with the loss of 



216 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part IV. 

fourteen thousand men. This victory enabled the Carthaginians 
to conclude an honorable peace. They not only retained their 
Sicilian possessions, but even obtained some increase of territory, 
and instead of paying, were themselves paid for the expenses of 
the war. 

The death of Dionysius the elder (b. c. 368) was followed by 
great disturbances in Sicily. His son and successor, the younger 
Dionysius, after being compelled to leave Syracuse, succeeded by 
open force in re-entering the city and regaining his power, which 
he used again in tyrannizing • over his subjects. The Carthagi- 
nians, ever ready to seize any occasion favorable to their views, 
deemed the present a most advantageous circumstance, and 
equipped a numerous fleet for a new invasion of Sicily. Their 
army, as usual, made at first rapid and considerable progress, so 
far as to take possession of the harbor of Syracuse. In this 
extreme danger, the Syracusans applied for assistance to the 
Corinthians, whose descendants they were, and obtained from 
them a body of about one thousand soldiers, under the conduct 
of an able leader called Timoleon : this force seemed very incon- 
siderable for so great an enterprise ; but the bravery of the men 
and the abilities of their commander made them equivalent to a 
numerous army (b. c. 345). 

When this little band reached the Sicilian shores, the Syra- 
cusans were in the most critical situation. Whilst the Cartha- 
ginians were masters of their harbor, Icetas, king of Leontium, a 
false and treacherous friend, was master of their city, and Dio- 
nysius still occupied the citadel. Very happily, this prince con- 
sented to deliver up to Timoleon both that fortress, together with 
the arms which it contained, and the remainder of his troops, 
amounting to two thousand men.* This transaction and the fear 
of new disappointments induced the Carthaginian leader to set 
sail for Carthage. Here, he was tried and condemned to death 
for his dastardly conduct, and two other generals were appointed 
in his place, to lead another expedition into Sicily ; it consisted 
of two hundred ships of war, besides an incredible multitude of 
-smaller vessels or transports, and an army of seventy thousand 
soldiers. 

To this multitude of the enemy, Timoleon, although now in 
full possession of Syracuse, could oppose no more than six thou- 
sand warriors. Yet, trusting in the courage of his little army, 
he did not hesitate to go forward, and attack the Carthaginians 

* Dionysius, having executed his design, embarked for Corinth, 
■where, according to some authors, he spent the remainder of his life 
in the capacity of a schoolmaster. 



b. c. 360—336. J&IGN OP PIIILIP. 217 

on the banks of a small river called Crimessus. The event justi- 
fied his views and expectations : the Carthaginians were routed, 
and lost ten thousand men, whilst as many were taken prisoners; 
their camp also fell into the power of the enemy, who found in 
it immense riches. 

This brilliant victory of Timoleon was followed by other signal 
advantages, which secured the liberties not only of Syracuse, but 
likewise of other parts of Sicily. The Carthaginians were con- 
fined within their ancient possessions ; usurpation and tyranny 
disappeared ; peace and prosperity took the place of disorder and 
anarchy. Having done so much for the Sicilians, Timoleon 
resigned his authority, and retired to a private life in Syracuse. 
But honor accompanied him in his retreat ; for the Syracusans 
never ceased to revere him as their father and their deliverer, 
and paid him every kind of respect both in public and private. 
At his death, which happened in the year B. c. 337, his mortal 
remains were accompanied to the grave by all the citizens, who 
manifested by abundant tears their feelings of gratitude, aifection, 
and sorrow. Finally, such was the esteem universally entertained 
for Timoleon, that solemn games of various sorts, to be annually 
celebrated, were instituted in his honor. 



MACEDONIAN KINGDOM. 
REIGN OF PHILIP.— b. c. 360—336. 

During these transactions in the west and south of Europe, 
there was arising in the east a power destined by Divine Provi- 
dence to have the greatest influence on the civilized world. This 
was the Macedonian empire, the third, in order of time, among 
the four great empires of antiquity. 

The kingdom of Macedon, situated at the north of Greece, had 
been founded by the Corinthians or the Argives, nearly eight 
hundred years before the coming of Christ. Its history offers 
nothing remarkable until the reign of Philip, who was the father 
of Alexander the Great, and who had been, in his youth, a dis- 
ciple of the illustrious Theban leader Epaminondas. Philip 
rescued Macedon from its previous obscurity, and succeeded, 
within a few years, in raising it to a marked pre-eminence over 
all the neighboring nations. The means which he employed for 
this purpose were not, it is true, always of the most honorable 
kind : cunning, intrigue and bribery were as readily used by 
him for the promotion of his designs as fair negotiation or open 
war; and he himself would say that he considered no fortress 

19 



218 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part IV. 

impregnable which could be reached by a mule loaded with gold. 
Yet it cannot be denied, and the whole of his reign amply testi- 
fies, that he was both an excellent general and an able monarch, 
and was indebted for nearly all his success to his own skilful 
exertions. 

Although Philip, at the time of his accession to the throne, 
was no more than twenty-four years of age, he knew how to put 
a speedy end to the disturbances and civil feuds by which the 
country had long been distracted. He repelled domestic rivals, 
defeated foreign enemies, and not only preserved his hereditary 
kingdom in its full extent, but even greatly enlarged it by his 
valor. Besides his conquests over the Thracians and Illyrians, 
he skilfully took advantage of the protracted disputes which, 
under the name of sacred wars, broke out among the Greeks 
about the territory of the Delphian temple of Apollo, to obtain 
a solid footing and ascendency in Greece. Under the plea of 
vindicating the honor of this famous temple, he poured his army 
into the country of the Phocians where Delphi was situated, 
secured the possession of the passes of Thermopylae, and took 
the important city of Elatea, which commanded the whole pro- 
vince. 

Philip, however, did not gain so many advantages without 
experiencing much opposition, especially on the part of the 
Athenian people. His career of victory and conquest was repeat- 
edly checked by their excellent leader Phocion, a man worthy 
of better times, and who, on account of a rare assemblage of 
great talents and great virtues never after witnessed in Athens, 
might be as justly surnamed the last of the Athenians, as the 
famous patrician JEtius was, at a later period, styled the last of 
the Romans. Tl\e merit of Phocion had gained him public 
esteem to such a degree, that he was appointed to command the 
troops no fewer than forty-five times, and each time during his 
absence from the public assemblies. The great fault of the 
Athenians was that they did not place him once more at their 
head, at the time of their last effort against Philip. 

But the Macedonian king found a still more powerful obstacle 
against his views of aggrandizement, in the patriotism, zeal and 
eloquence of Demosthenes. This illustrious man, who was at 
the same time a profound politician and a perfect orator, ceased 
not to exert his talents, and to give the most energetic as well 
as wholesome counsels, in order to avert the storm which threat- 
ened the liberties of his nation. No sooner was the loss of Elatea 
made known, than he prevailed, by the mere power of his elo- 
quence, upon the Athenians on the one side, and the Thebans 



B. c. 3G0— 336. REIGN OF PHILIP. 0^9 

on the other, to forget their private animosities, and unite for 
their common defence. 

Philip, not having been able by negotiation to prevent the 
conclusion of this league against his interests, determined to 
crush it on the field of battle. He entered the Boeotian terri- 
tory at the head of thirty-two thousand men, and met near 
Chaeronea the army of the confederates, amounting to nearly the 
same number. Having taken the command of the right wing in 
person, he placed the left under his son, Alexander, then a youth 
seventeen years of age. The Athenians were opposed to Philip, 
the Thebans to Alexander. 

The shock, as might be expected, was terrible between two 
warlike, brave and rival parties, one of which fought to maintain 
its former success, the other, to preserve its freedom. After the 
battle had continued for a long time, Alexander, already dis- 
playing the skill of a general and the intrepidity of a warrior, 
broke the ranks of the sacred band and of the rest of the Thebans, 
and put them to flight. Philip, for some moments, was not so 
successful; a part of his troops began to give way, and Ly sides, 
the Athenian general, was heard to exclaim: "Come, let us 
pursue them into Macedon." The king, in the meanwhile, was 
attentively watching the movements of both armies. Seeing the 
enemy too eager in the pursuit of some fugitive troops, and not 
improving their advantage by attacking his main body in flank, 
he calmly said to those around him: "The Athenians know not 
how to conquer. " Immediately he commanded his phalanx* to 
wheel about, and attacking his imprudent foes both in the flank 
and rear, threw them into such disorder as very soon ended in 
their total defeat (b. c. 338). 

Philip made a generous use of his victory. He dismissed all 
the Athenian captives without ransom, and granted peace to the 
two republics. The year following, he caused a general assembly 
of the Greeks to be held at Corinth, and was, according to his 
earnest desire, appointed commander-in-chief of their forces 
against Persia; for he now seriously thought of undertaking the 
conquest of that empire. The troops promised to him for this 
great attempt, were to consist of two hundred thousand infantry, 
and fifteen thousand cavalry. But death surprised him in the 
midst of these vast preparations, and the prospect of affairs in 
Greece was once more changed, at least for a time. 

The refusal to give satisfaction to a young Macedonian lord, 

* The Macedonian phalanx was a close and compact body of heavy- 
armed infantry, whose number amounted to about sixteen thousand 
men. 



220 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part IV 

who had been grossly insulted by one of the favorites of the 
court, cost PKilip his life ; the young man, in a paroxysm of 
fury, stabbed him during the celebration of a festivity. Philip 
had lived forty-seven years, during twenty-four of which he had 
occupied the throne of Macedon with great fame and prosperity. 
He fell the victim of his own imprudent partiality to a subject, 
and at the very time when he was about to reap, in the conquest 
of Persia, the long-desired fruit of his ambitious and hitherto 
successful career. 

During one of his wars, he had lost an eye in a very strange 
manner. Whilst he was engaged in the siege of Methone, a 
small Thracian city, a certain man called Aster, of Amphipolis, 
offered himself to serve in his army in quality of marksman, 
saying he was so skilful in this respect, that he could bring down 
birds in their most rapid flight. Philip replied that, since such 
was the case with Aster, he would take him into his service, 
when he would wage war against starlings. This answer deeply 
wounded the feelings of the archer. Having thrown himself 
into the besieged town, he shot an arrow on which was written, 
"To Philip's right eye," and which actually pierced the right 
eye of that prince. The king sent him back the same arrow 
with this inscription : " If Philip takes Methone, he will hang 
Aster;" and so he really did, as soon as the city fell into his 
power. A satirical and malicious repartee often costs its author 
very dear, as both Philip and Aster sadly experienced on this 
occasion. 

Philip is likewise reproached with other faults of a serious 
nature, and also with vulgarity. On the other hand, it cannot 
be denied that there were in him many excellent qualities worthy 
of a great monarch. He kept a man in his service, to say to him 
every day, before he gave audience : " Philip, remember that 
thou art mortal." As he was rising one day from a repast at 
which he had remained several hours, a woman applied to him 
to obtain justice, but failed to persuade him of the strength and 
validity of her reasons. He therefore gave judgment against 
her. " I appeal," she exclaimed. "Why?" said Philip, "you 
appeal from your sovereign! and to whom?" "To Philip in 
his sober senses," was the answer. The remark struck the 
monarch ; he reconsidered the affair, acknowledged his mistake, 
and reversed the sentence which he had too precipitately pro- 
nounced. 

Another distressed woman frequently appeared before him, 
begging an audience to terminate her lawsuit; but Philip 
always answered that he had not time to comply with her re 



DEMOSTHENES AND JESCHINES. 221 

quest. Being very much annoyed by these refusals, she one 
day replied with emotion : " If you have no time to do me jus- 
tice, cease to be king." Philip felt keenly the rebuke, which a 
just indignation had extorted from the poor woman, and far from 
being offended, immediately satisfied her claims, and was after- 
wards more punctual in giving audience. 

Although Philip availed himself of the treasonable practices 
of others for his own purposes, he heartily despised and abhorred 
the traitors. Having bribed two citizens of Olynthus to betray 
their city into his hands, he took an early opportunity to mani- 
fest his supreme contempt for them. Every one, even the com- 
mon soldiers of the Macedonian army, reproached these men 
with their perfidy. They complained to the king, who contented 
himself with giving them the following ironical answer, which 
was, indeed, far severer than the reproach itself: "Do not mind 
what may be said by vulgar people, who call every thing by its 
real name." 

With all his warlike habits and the agitation of his life, Philip 
was possessed of great literary merit ; to him might be justly 
applied what was afterwards said of Julius Caesar, that be was 
not less skilful in using the pen than in wielding the sword. He 
wrote and addressed to the Athenians, his most constant enemies, 
a long letter, vindicating his political conduct and passing stric- 
tures on their policy : that letter is considered a masterpiece 
for vigor of thought, strength of reasoning, and nobleness, con- 
ciseness and elegance of style. Being thus truly eloquent him- 
self, Philip entertained the highest idea of the eloquence of 
Demosthenes; he feared it more than he feared all the Athenian 
troops and vessels. Even after his victory at Cbaeronea, he 
shuddered at the bare recollection of the danger to which the 
prodigious power of that orator had exposed his empire and his 
life. He even candidly acknowledged that, if he had been pre- 
sent at the public assemblies of the Athenian people, his mind 
would have been convinced, like theirs, by the powerful reasons 
of Demosthenes, and he would have come, first of all, to the 
conclusion that war was to be declared against the Macedonians. 

DEMOSTHENES AND iESCHINES. 

Since Demosthenes exercised such influence and enjoyed so 
great a reputation, it will not be amiss to add a few more parti- 
culars on this extraordinary man. He was the son of one of the 
principal citizens of Athens, also called Demosthenes, who left 
him a considerable fortune. But^ being only seven years of age 

19* 



222 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part IV 

when his father died, he had the great misfortune to fall into 
the hands of covetous and faithless guardians, who converted a 
part of his property to their own use, suffered the rest to lie 
neglected, and were vile enough to defraud his tutors of their 
salaries ; so that he did not obtain those advantages of education 
to which he was entitled. 

Although there were so many obstacles thrown in his way, 
the natural talent of Demosthenes appeared to great advantage 
as soon as an occasion called for its display. At the age of six- 
teen, he heard the orator Callistratus plead with great applause 
and success ; this fired him with a spirit of emulation. From 
that time, he gave up his other studies and exercises, and assidu- 
ously applied himself to the art of declaiming, in hopes of being 
one day numbered among the orators. He took lessons of elo- 
quence from Isaeus, and is believed to have likewise studied under 
Plato, and to have been greatly assisted by him in preparing to 
speak in public. 

He began to appear at the bar as an orator, shortly after his 
minority had expired. The first cause which he pleaded, and 
with success, was his own cause against his unfaithful guardians, 
from whom he recovered a portion of his patrimony. His first 
addresses to the people were not so successful ; certain defects in 
his appearance, voice and delivery, caused him to be laughed at 
and interrupted. This treatment greatly distressed him, and he 
might have given up his profession in despair, had not the advice 
of some experienced persons, who perceived his talents for 
oratory, encouraged him to persevere in the study of eloquence, 
and by correcting his natural defects of pronunciation and deli- 
very, confidently pursue the course which he had adopted. 

Demosthenes followed this advice. He caused a small chamber 
to be built under ground ; here he frequently occupied himself 
in study for two or three months in succession, shaving one side 
of his head, that the shame of appearing in this condition might 
prevent him from leaving his retreat.* Here, by the light of a 
lamp, he composed the admirable orations, which were said by 
those who envied him, to smell of oil ; "Yours," he would reply 
on such occasions, " most assuredly did not cost you so much 
trouble. " He rose very early, and used to say, that he was very 
sorry when any workman was at work before him.f We may 
judge of his extraordinary efforts to excel in his art, from the 
fact of his copying the History of Thucydides eight times with 

* Plutarch in Dcmosth. 

f Dolere se aiebat, si quando opificuni antelucana, victus esset indus- 
trial. Cicer. Tusc. Quasi, b. iv, n. 44. 



\ 



DEMOSTHENES AND ^SCHINES. 223 

his own hand, in order to become familiar with the style of this 
great historian. 

Demosthenes attended as carefully to his action and voice, as 
to the composition of his harangues. To correct a natural im- 
pediment in his speech, he would pronounce several verses with- 
out interruption, with pebbles in his mouth, whilst walking in 
steep and difficult places. By his constant exertions, he at 
length overcame every difficulty, and was able to pronounce 
with ease the longest periods. He used also to declaim on the 
sea-shore, in the midst of the roaring and violent agitation of the 
Waves, in order to accustom himself to the tumultuous move- 
ments and clamors of the people in their assemblies. 

So many cares and precautions were amply rewarded ; for it 
was by these various means that Demosthenes carried the art of 
speech to the highest degree of perfection of which it is natu- 
rally capable. He had a glorious subject for the display of his 
eloquence, the defence of Grecian liberty against the ambition 
and continual encroachments of Philip. He defended that cause 
in a manner worthy of its object and of his lofty genius, so as to 
be esteemed and feared by Philip himself, highly honored by 
the king of Persia, and admired by all the Greeks, who flocked 
to Athens in order to hear him. And this extraordinary renown 
of Demosthenes was no more than he deserved. He united in 
himself the various qualities of an accomplished orator, and in 
point of animation, energy and vehemence, transcended all the 
orators of any age or country. 

In some respects, however, and in his own time, Demosthenes 
met with successful rivals. Such were Demades, who even sur- 
passed him in extemporaneous speaking; Phocion, whom Demos- 
thenes called & hatchet that destroyed the effect of his words; 
and particularly iEschines, his most constant antagonist in the 
arena of politics. 

The opposite views and interests of these two great orators 
gave rise to one of the most interesting trials that ever took 
place. Immediately after the battle of Chasronea, Demosthenes 
had been charged by the Athenians to repair the walls and for- 
tifications of their city. He nobly acquitted himself of this com- 
mission, so far as to give considerable sums of money out of his 
own estate, to defray the expenses of the work, and make up for 
the deficiency of the public treasury. At the request of an influ- 
ential citizen, called Ctesiphon, a crown of gold was decreed to 
him as a reward for his zeal and generous patriotism ; iEschines 
attacked this decree as contrary to law, and though he pretended 



224 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part IV. 

to accuse Ctesiphon, manifestly directed his charge against De- 
mosthenes. 

This cause excited the greatest curiosity, and was conducted 
in the most solemn manner, and before a vast concourse of 
people. It was, indeed, a grand spectacle to behold the two 
greatest orators of Greece arraying against each other alKthe 
powers of eloquence. The harangues which they delivered on 
this occasion have always been considered as the most brilliant 
efforts of ancient oratory, especially that of Demosthenes: 
iEschines lost his cause, and was, for his rash accusation, sen- 
tenced to banishment, or perhaps condemned himself to it in 
consequence of his failure ; he retired to Rhodes, where he esta- 
blished a school of eloquence, the fame and glory of which con- 
tinued for several ages. He began his lectures with the two 
speeches that had occasioned his banishment. The assembly 
greatly admired his own production ; but when they heard the 
harangue of Demosthenes, the plaudits and acclamations were 
redoubled. Then it was that he spoke these words, so praise- 
worthy in the mouth of an enemy and a rival : " What applause 
would you not have bestowed, had you heard Demosthenes de- 
liver his harangue himself I" 

Demosthenes, on his part, made a very noble use of his vic- 
tory. When iEschmes left Athens to embark for Rhodes, he 
ran after him, and obliged him to accept a large sum of money. 
iEschines was greatly moved by this unexpected offer, and is said 
to have exclaimed : u How will it be possible for me not to re- 
gret a country, in which I leave an enemy far more generous 
than any friends that I can hope to find elsewhere ?'.' 

POLITICAL SITUATION OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE. 

Whilst Demosthenes continually warned the Athenians to 
guard against the ambition of Philip, and oppose it with all their 
strength, he exhorted them, on the other hand, to seek for the 
alliance of the king of Persia — an act of prudent policy, since 
Athens at that time had every thing to fear from Philip, but 
nothing from the Persian monarch • for, although the Persian 
empire still displayed great splendor and riches, and in this 
respect might afford much assistance to an ally, yet there was no 
nation in the world more feeble in reality, and more rapidly tot- 
tering to its fall. This unhappy state of Persia was owing 
chiefly to the degeneracy of Persian manners, the frequent re- 
volts occasioned by the malversation of governors in provinces 



PERSIAN EMPIRE. 225 

distant from the court, and the almost incessant intrigues, ani- 
mosities and conspiracies which distracted the court itself. 

These different evils had imbittered the days of King Artax- 
crxes Mnenion, especially towards the end of his reign. They 
continued under his successor Ochus, or Artaxerxes III. The 
latter sovereign, it is true, suppressed most of the rebellions that 
occurred under him ; but his indolence and effeminacy rather 
increased the disorders which prevailed at court, and, at the 
same time, his many cruelties rendered his government extremely 
odious. After a reign of twenty-one years, he died by poison 
given to him by his chief minister, the Egyptian Bagoas. The 
same wicked officer also put to death all the sons of the king, 
except the youngest, called Arses, whom he pretended to place 
on the throne, whilst he retained the whole power of sovereignty 
in his own hands. 

Arses did not long enjoy the honors of royalty, and the empty 
title of king. This young monarch, filled with horror at the 
ciimes of Bagoas, had not taken sufficient care to conceal his 
real sentiments, and his intention to punish that monster of 
cruelty. Bagoas did not allow him to execute his project, but 
prevented it by putting Arses himself and his children to death. 
As there remained, in consequence of these murders, no direct 
successors to the crown, it devolved on Codomanus, a prince of 
royal descent by a collateral line ; he took the name of Darius, 
and was the thirteenth and last king of Persia. 

This prince had proved himself worthy of the high station to 
which he was called. In a late war against the Cadusians, a 
warrior of that nation challenged the whole Persian army to pro- 
duce a champion capable of fighting against him ; after all the 
other Persians had refused, Codomanus accepted the challenge, 
and slew the barbarian. This exploit was rewarded with the 
government of Armenia, which he retained until he received the 
news of his elevation to the Persian throne. 

Bagoas soon perceived that he had placed a master over himself. 
He resolved to make him share the fate of the two preceding 
monarchs ; but Darius, informed of his design, forced this abomi- 
nable man to drink the fatal cup which he had prepared for his 
sovereign, and so remained in undisturbed possession of the crown. 

History represents Darius Codomanus, in the general tenor of 
his life, as a brave, kind, and generous prince. He might, in 
ordinary times and circumstances, have done great honor to 
Persia. It was his misfortune to have to contend against an 
enemy of far superior abilities, Alexander the Great, who began 
to reign exactly in the same year with himself, B. c. 336. 



226 - ANCIENT HISTORY. Part IV 

ALEXANDER THE GEEAT. 

b. c. 336—324.* 

I I. HIS ACCESSION TO THE THRONE, AND FIRST EXPLOITS. 
b. c. 336—334. 

Alexander, afterwards surnamed the Great, was born at 
Pella, the capital of Macedon, in the year B. c. 356. His father 
Philip, who shortly before had achieved important conquests, 
received three joyful tidings on the same day : the first informed, 
him that Parmenio, one of his generals, had gained a signal vic- 
tory over the Illyrians ; the second, that his race-horse had won 
the prize at the Olympic games ; and the third, that his wife 
Olympias was delivered of a son. He feared that this extra- 
ordinary prosperity might be the forerunner of impending cala- 
mities, and, in order to avert them, he cried out : " Great Jupiter, 
in return for so many blessings, send me some slight misfortune 
as soon as possible." 

Philip showed his wisdom and paternal affection in the great 
care which he took of the education of his son. He chose the 
celebrated philosopher Aristotle to be Alexander's preceptor, and, 
on that occasion, wrote to him in the following terms : " I in- 
form you that Heaven has favored me with the birth of a son. I 
return thanks to the gods, not so much for having given him to 
me, as for having given him during the life of Aristotle ) I can 
justly promise myself that you will render him a successor wor- 
thy of me, and a king worthy of Macedon." Never, indeed, were 
lofty hopes more fully realized. 

Even from his early years, Alexander evinced uncommon quali- 
fications of body and mind. Possessed of admirable sagacity, 
elevated genius, great strength of judgment and generosity of 
soul, he improved these natural Endowments under excellent 
tutors, and particularly Aristotle, to whom he thought himself 
no less indebted than to his father Philip. By the care of so 
great a master and his own application, he made rapid progress 
in every branch of knowledge, acquired a manly eloquence, and 
imbibed such a relish for all the fine arts, that they found in him 
a constant admirer and a munificent patron. Among the cele- 
brated sculptors and painters of that age, he set the highest value 

* See Plutarch, in the life of Alexander ; — Ai'rian, in his seven books 
of Alexander's expeditions ; — Quintus Curtius, Be rebus gestis Alexandra 
Magni; — Justin, Hist. b. xi et xii; — Rollin's Ancient History, vol. vi; — 
Gerard, vol. x, lettre 66 ; etc. 



„. c. 336—324. ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 227 

on the talents of Lysippus and Apelles; the former alone had 
his permission to represent him in marble, and the latter on 
canvas. 

But, unfortunately for the tranquillity of the world, the pre- 
dominant disposition of Alexander's mind was an insatiable thirst 
for glory and conquest. This he manifested on every occasion. 
"Whenever news was brought that Philip had taken some strong 
city, or been victorious in a great battle, the young man, instead 
of appearing delighted with it, exclaimed with sadness in the 
midst of his companions: "Alas! my father will make every 
conquest, and leave us nothing to do." 

He was no sooner admitted to a share in the command of 
armies, than he began to display the intrepidity of a warrior and 
the skill of a general : it was in this twofold capacity that he 
signalized himself at the famous battle of Ohaeronea, by being 
the first who broke the sacred band of the Thebans. Even before 
that period, he had given a signal specimen of what the world 
might expect from him. When only sixteen years of age, his 
father Philip, going upon an expedition against Byzantium in 
Thrace, appointed him regent of Macedon, with very extensive 
powers. The Medari or Masdi, a neighboring tribe, rebelling 
during his regency, he attacked and overthrew them, took their 
city, expelled the barbarians, planted there a colony of people 
collected from various parts, and gave it the name of Alexan- 
dropolis. 

A still more extended field opened before Alexander for the 
display of his abilities and his ambition, when, at the age of 
twent} r , he succeeded his father on the throne. His first care was 
to punish the murderers of Philip, and celebrate his obsequies 
with all possible magnificence. He then set out at the head of 
an army against the barbarians, who were endeavoring, on all 
sides, to shake off the yoke imposed on them by the late king. 
He defeated the Triballians in a great battle near the Danube, 
made the Cletaj fly at his approach, subdued several other tribes, 
some by force of arms, others by the terror of his name ) and, 
notwithstanding the bold assertion of some among their ambassa- 
dors that the only fear they had, was lest the heavens and stars 
should fall upon them, caused them all to dread or at least to 
respect his power. A few months were sufficient for this youug 
conqueror to vanquish so many enemies and win so many laurels. 

Whilst Alexander was thus engaged at a distance against the 
barbarians, news was brought to him that several Grecian cities 
had adopted measures the most contrary to his interests. The 
Thebans, especially, had proceeded to take up arms against him 



228 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part IV. 

with a boldness that far surpassed their strength, and Demosthenes 
was incessantly urging the Athenians to follow the s£me course. 
The king, in the mean while, had begun to advance rapidly 
towards Greece. When he had passed the Thermopylae, he said 
to his followers : " Demosthenes in his speeches called me a child, 
whilst I was among the Triballians and Illyrians J he called me a 
youth, when I was in Thessaly; and I must now show him, near 
the walls of Athens, that I am a grown man." Having surprised 
the Thebans by the rapidity of his march, he defeated them with 
great slaughter, levelled their city to the ground, and sold the 
surviving inhabitants as slaves, to the number of thirty thousand. 
This example of severity, which Alexander himself afterwards 
deemed excessive, spread terror among all the neighboring cities, 
and particularly among the Athenians; they hastened to make 
their submission, sued for peace, an'd were happy enough to ob- 
tain it under moderate conditions. 

Having thus fully restored the Macedonian influence through- 
out Greece, Alexander convened a general assembly to be held at 
the isthmus of Corinth, and here he was, as his father Philip 
had been, unanimously elected commander-in-chief of the Greeks 
against the Persians. As many distinguished persons came to 
congratulate him on the occasion, he hoped that Diogenes of Si- 
nope, who then lived at Corinth, would be of the number. Find- 
ing himself disappointed, he went to see that philosopher in a 
part of the suburbs called Cranium. Diogenes happened, at that 
moment, to be lying in the sun ; and seeing a large concourse of 
people approach him, he raised himself a little, and fixed his eyes 
on Alexander. The king addressed him in a courteous manner, 
and asked him whether he stood in need of any service ; " Only 
stand a little out of the sunshine," said Diogenes. Alexander, 
we are told, was struck and surprised to such a degree at finding 
himself so little regarded, and saw in that indifference (if not 
rather philosophical pride and pedantry), something so extraor- 
dinary, that while his courtiers were ridiculing the philosopher, 
he said : " I could wish to be Diogenes, if I were not Alexander." 

But, whatever may have been his conditional wish, this prince 
certainly preferred to be Alexander rather than Diogenes. He 
l hen thought of nothing except the conquest of Asia, and having 
obtained from the Greeks what he most desired, he hastened his 
return to Macedon, in order to make his immediate preparations 
for the momentous enterprise. 



c. 336—324. ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 229 



g II. ALEXANDER UNDERTAKES THE CONQUEST OF ASIA- 
FALL OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE.— b. c. 334—330. 

Alexander appointed Antipater, one of his best generals, to 
govern Macedon in his absence, and gave him a sufficient number 
of troops to watch effectually over the interests of that kingdom 
and the tranquillity of Greece. He himself embarked for his 
expedition with an army of about thirty-five thousand men. This 
number, when compared to the greatness of the attempt, might 
be deemed a very inconsiderable force j but Alexander's troops 
were all chosen, intrepid and experienced warriors, having at their 
head, besides himself, excellent generals, such as Parmenio for 
the infantry, and Philotas, the son of Parmenio, for the cavalry. 
This army was furnished with neither a great quantity of provi- 
sions, nor a large amount of money for the necessary expenses ) 
Alexander relied, for the future, on the strength of his sword, 
and the weakness of the enemy whom he was preparing to attack. 

His calculations were correct. The Persians could bring to the 
field vast multitudes of men, but only a few warriors ; and among 
these, not one good general, except Menmon the Rhodian, whose 
valor and prudence were equalled only by his fidelity to Darius. 
This able leader suggested the best measures to defend the em- 
pire against its invaders ; but either his advice was disregarded 
by the Persian satraps, or a premature death prevented him from 
carrying his excellent views into execution. This accident deliv- 
ered Alexander from a formidable rival, and the only commander 
who could have opposed him with success. 

It is true, however, that the Macedonian hero had already 
entered upon his course of rapid conquests, whilst Memnon was 
yet alive. Having crossed the Hellespont without any difficulty, 
he encountered the first Persian army on the banks of the Grani- 
cus, a river of Phrygia. It was a perilous attempt to ford it in 
presence of an hostile force of one hundred and ten thousand 
men, who, from the other shore, were ready to oppose his pas- 
sage; yet, so many obstacles did not make Alexander hesitate for a 
single moment. Throwing himself with the cavalry into the 
stream, he rushed at their head against the Persians, even at the 
risk of his life. A battle-axe, brandished by a vigorous hand, 
broke his helmet, and a second and deadly stroke was about to 
follow, when Clitus, one of his officers, saved his life by cutting 
off the hand of the Persian warrior. 

The Macedonians, greatly excited by the perilous situation of 
their leader, rushed forward with the most desperate courage 

20 



230 ANCIENT HISTORY. Paht IV. 

until the two wings of the enemy's horse were at length put to 
flight. The Persian infantry offered still less resistance. Being 
attacked at the same time by the phalanx, which had now crossed 
the river, and by the victorious cavalry of the Macedonians, they 
dispersed, and after a chosen body of Grecian auxiliaries had also 
been defeated, left Alexander absolute master of the field (b. c. 
334). The loss of the Persians, according to the more com- 
mon report, amounted to twenty thousand foot and two thousand 
five hundred horse j whereas the whole number of slain on the 
side of the Macedonians did not exceed one hundred and thirty. 

The victory at the Granicus had all the happy consequences 
that Alexander could reasonably expect. Among the chief cities 
of Lesser Asia, it induced many, for instance, Sardis, Ephesus, 
Magnesia, etc., to make an immediate surrender into his hands; 
and it helped him to subdue others, such as Miletus and Halicar- 
nassus, notwithstanding their vigorous and protracted resistance. 

After these conquests, Alexander reached the city of Tarsus in 
Cilicia. When he arrived there, being all covered with dust and 
sweat in consequence of the excessive heat of the day, and in- 
vited by the cool and limpid waters of the Cydnus, he had the 
imprudence to throw himself into that river. He was immediately 
benumbed with cold, and carried back half dead to his tent. As 
soon as he had recovered the use of his senses, he desired his 
physicians to give him quick, strong, and even, if necessary, 
violent remedies, because, aware of the approach of a Persian 
army under the command of Darius, he preferred a speedy death 
to a slow cure. This impatience of the king alarmed every one, 
and the physicians were unwilling to undertake so perilous a case. 
One of them, however, called Philip, much attached to Alexan- 
der whom he had attended from his tender years, thought it the 
highest ingratitude, when he now beheld him in so much danger, 
not to risk something with him in exhausting all the art of medi- 
cine for his relief. He therefore attempted the cure, and on con- 
dition that he should have sufficient time to make all necessary 
preparation, promised a powerful and sure remedy. 

In the interval, the king received from Parmenio, his most 
trusty general, a note stating that Philip had been bribed by the 
Persians to poison his sovereign. When, at the appointed time, 
the physician entered the chamber, holding a cup with the medi- 
cine which he had prepared, Alexander gave him the letter to 
read, and, at the same instant, taking the cup from his hands, 
swallowed the whole draught without hesitation. Philip showed 
more indignation than fear at the charge contained in the letter ; 
" My lord/' said he, " your recovery will soon place mj innocence 



B. 0. 336—324. ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 231 

in the clearest light." Within the short space of three days, 
Alexander was restored to health, and showed himself again to 
his troops, whose joy was proportioned to the danger to which 
they had been exposed of losing their leader. 

In the mean time, King Darius was advancing with an almost 
countless force against Alexander.* He had been advised to 
station himself in the vast plains of Mesopotamia, where he 
might indeed have used all his forces to the best advantage, and 
so direct the movements of the numerous squadrons of his cavalry, 
as to hem in on all sides the small army of the Macedonians. But 
the Persian monarch would not listen to this salutary advice, and 
advanced as far as the small town of Issus, amidst the narrow 
passes of Cilicia (b. c. 333). 

The spot could not possibly be more unfavorable to him, nor 
more advantageous to Alexander, who, being protected on the 
one side by the mountains, on the other by the sea, was not in 
danger of being surrounded. Hence the issue of the battle was 
not long uncertain, except perhaps in the centre of both armies, 
where the Grecian auxiliaries for Persia opposed the Macedonian 
phalanx. To speak in general, although several bodies of the 
Persian troops fought at first with great courage, their two wings, 
as likewise their centre, were broken, routed, driven from the 
field, and, owing to both the narrowness of the place and the 
closeness of the pursuit, experienced a dreadful slaughter. They 
lost from one hundred thousand to one hundred and thirty thou- 
sand men, together with their camp, their treasures, and a large 
number of prisoners. Among the captives were the mother and 
other persons of Darius' family, all of whom Alexander treated 
with the utmost courtesy and respect. As to Darius himself, as 
soon as he saw himself in danger, he was seized with terror, 
threw off the insignia of royalty, and gave to those around him 
the example of a precipitate flight. i 

The best fruit of this great victory for the conqueror, was to 
render him master of Syria and Phenicia. One city, however, 
in the latter country, the famous and powerful city of Tyre, 
closed its gates against him. He, indeed, succeeded in taking it 
by storm, but not till after a siege of seven months' duration, 

* The number of men who composed the Persian army is differently 
stated by various historians. Quintus Curtius (b. iii, c. 2, n. 4) makes 
it amount to about three hundred thousand soldiers of different nations. 
According to Justin (b. xi, c. 9), it consisted of one hundred thousand 
cavalry and four hundred thousand infantry ; and Plutarch (mi Alex.) 
makes the total number not less than six hundred thousand. 



232 ANCIENT HISTORY. Pabt IV. 

which cost him and his whole army incredible dangers and hard- 
ships. 

Tyre was situated on a small island, the whole extent of which 
it occupied, at the distance of about half a mile from the conti- 
nent. Thus surrounded by the sea, it could not be besieged in 
the ordinary manner like other towns, and, independently of its 
numerous fortifications and means of defence, it appeared per- 
fectly sheltered against the peril of a regular assault. To over- 
come this difficulty, Alexander undertook to join the city with 
the main land, by raising a mole across the strait which sepa- 
rated them. This astonishing work, the greatest proof perhaps 
of the indomitable energy of his mind, was effected by dint of 
patience and efforts, in spite of winds, waves, tempests, and the 
incessant attacks of the besieged. No sooner was it completed, 
than the Macedonians began to assault the city both by land 
and sea. Yet the Tyrians did not lose courage ; their ardor 
seemed rather to increase ; with their navy, their machines, and 
the various resources of personal valor, they continued to offer a 
most vigorous and undaunted opposition to all the exertions of 
the enemy. Even after the outward fortifications of the place 
were ruined or carried by storm, they still defended the avenues 
and streets with incredible obstinacy. 

Alexander, on his part, rendered furious by their resistance, 
visited it with a dreadful retaliation. By his orders, almost all 
the inhabitants of Tyre were either put to the sword or sold at 
auction j and, as if this were not sufficient to satisfy his fury, he 
caused two thousand men, his prisoners, to be crucified along the 
shore. He exercised similar cruelties against the governor, the 
garrison and the citizens of Gaza, in Palestine, to punish them 
for having, by the vigor of their defence, detained his army be- 
fore their walls during the space of two months. Thus early had 
prosperity begun to inflate his pride, and turn his former gene- 
rosity into the worst form of anger, revenge and fierceness. 

This terrible conqueror intended likewise to treat the Jews 
with great severity, on account of their attachment and fidelity 
to the Persian king. For this purpose, he had no sooner subdued 
Tyre than he marched against Jerusalem, with the determination 
to inflict on it the most rigorous punishments ; but, through a 
special providence of God over his chosen people, the heart of 
Alexander was suddenly changed, and his anger appeased at the 
sight of the High-priest Jaddus, who had come in great pomp to 
meet him out of the city. The king recognised in that pontiff a 
venerable personage who had appeared to him in his sleep, whilst 
he was in Macedon ; and had promised him the conquest and 



b. c. 336—324. ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 233 

empire of Asia. His admiration increased when lie was shown, 
in the book of Daniel's prophecies, the predictions which con- 
cerned himself and expressly foretold that a Grecian king would 
overthrow the Persian empire.* Alexander, exceedingly struck 
with the occurrence and pleased with the prediction, showed the 
greatest respect to Jadclus, adored the true God whose minister 
he was, and, instead of punishing the Jews, conferred on them a 
variety of benefits and favors. This interesting fact is related 
by the historian Josephus.f 

Alexander then advanced towards Egypt, a considerable, 
though disaffected part of his enemy's empire. Here, aided by 
the aversion of the natives against the Persian government, he 
subjected the whole country to his power without any opposition. 
The favorable situation of a part of the northern coast induced 
him to lay on that spot the foundation of a city, which was called 
after his own name, Alexandria ; it became and remained for 
several ages the greatest emporium in the world. At this period, 
also, giving full scope to the pride of his heart, he undertook to 
make himself pass for a god. Full of this extravagant idea, he 
proceeded across the Lybian sands and deserts, to the temple of 
Jupiter-Ammon, and the priests of that temple, bribed by his 
presents, declared him the son of Jupiter. 

After having gratified his foolish vanity, Alexander returned 
to Egypt. He revisited his rising city of Alexandria, granted 
many privileges to the inhabitants, and settled the government 
both military and civil of the whole country. He then set out 
for Palestine and Phenicia, in order to give his undivided atten- 
tion to the affairs of the east. About this time, he received a 
letter from Darius, in which that prince proposed, on condition 
of a pacification and future friendship, to pay him ten thousand 
talents (about ten millions of dollars) for the ransom of the pri- 
soners, to cede to him all the countries on the western side of the 
Euphrates, and to give him his daughter in marriage. Parmenio, 
to whom these proposals were communicated, was of opinion that 
they should be received. " I would accept them," said he, " if 
I were Alexander." " So would I," replied Alexander, "if I 
were Parmenio ;" thus fully implying that he despised whatever 
might satisfy ordinary ambition, and would be contented with 
nothing less than the possession of the whole world. 

In consequence of this answer, Darius lost all hopes of an 
accommodation, and again prepared for war. Alexander, on his 
part, advanced towards the Euphrates, which he crossed by 

* Daniel viii, 5, 8, and 20, 21. 
f Jewish Antiquities, b. xi, ch. 8. 
20* 



234 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part IV. 

means of a bridge, and continuing his journey, soon reached the 
banks of the Tigris. Here, for want of the same convenience, 
and in consequence of the impetuosity of the stream, the crossing 
of this river was far more difficult, and would most probably have 
been fatal to the Macedonians, if the orders of the Persian king 
had been executed. Mazasus, one of his chief officers, with a_ 
numerous body of cavalry, was directed to oppose and prevent 
the passage j but this general arrived too late, and only at the 
time when Alexander had already, though with much peril and 
trouble, conveyed all his troops to the Persian bank of the river. 
They might have been destroyed, says Q. Curtius, if an enemy 
had been in readiness to conquer them, while they struggled 
against the natural difficulty of the attempt.* A few days later, 
the armies came in sight near the village of Gaugamela, in an 
open plain, at the distance of at least forty miles from Arbela, 
which latter place, being a much more considerable town than 
Gaugamela, gave its name to the battle. 

There was a vast difference between the two armies, both in 
number and courage. The troops of Darius consisted, if not of 
a million of men, as Plutarch admits, at least of six hundred 
thousand infantry and forty thousand cavalry. The forces of 
Alexander amounted only to forty thousand foot, and seven or 
eight thousand horse. But the latter army was full of vigor and 
strength ; whereas that of the Persians, with the exception of 
some bodies of cavalry and the Grecian auxiliaries, was, as usual, 
rather a prodigious and confused multitude of men, than a band 
of real warriors. 

The night before the battle, Alexander slept so soundly that 
his chief officers were obliged to wake him, in order to receive 
his instructions ; he never appeared so resolute, so cheerful, and 
so confident of victory. His presence of mind, as well as his 
bravery, mostly contributed to turn the scale in his favor. Having 
first broken and routed the left wing of the Persians, he was eager 
to improve his advantage by falling, with redoubled energy, upon 
their centre, where Darius had taken his position. The presence 
of the two kings inspired their respective troops with new vigor. 
Darius was mounted on a chariot, and Alexander on horseback, 
both surrounded by their bravest officers and warriors, whose 
only aim was to protect the lives of their sovereigns, even at the 
risk of their own. 

After a furious and bloody conflict, Alexander came so near 
the chariot of the Persian king, that he killed his driver, who 

* Deleri potuit exercitus, si quis ausus esset yincere. — B. iv, c. ix, 
n. 38. 



B.C. 336— 324. ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 235 

stood before him, with a javelin. Both the Macedonians and 
Persians imagined that it was Darius himself who had been 
slain, and the Persians, in the utmost consternation, began to 
quit their ranks and to give way in almost every direction. 
Even the monarch, believing that all was lost, fled with the 
greater part of his army. Up to this moment, he had displayed, 
during the battle, a judgment and valor truly worthy of praise ; 
and, whilst withdrawing from that scene of carnage, evinced a 
feeling of humanity still more honorable to his character. Being 
advised by some persons to break down the bridge of a river, in 
order to retard the enemy's pursuit, he refused, and said that he 
would never seek to save his life at the risk of so many thou- 
sands of his subjects, who had the same right with himself to 
provide for their safety. 

Until the defeat of both the left wing and centre of the Per- 
sian army, nothing of importance had been done in other parts 
of the field. From the beginning of the combat, a detachment 
of Cadusian and Scythian cavalry in the service of Darius had 
attacked and begun to plunder the camp of the Macedonians. 
The news of this attack was brought to Alexander; still, not to 
weaken the main bodies of his troops, he with difficulty con- 
sented to send any assistance, hoping that victory, if it could be 
secured, would amply compensate every previous loss. But that 
was not the only nor the greatest difficulty to be encountered. 

Parmenio, who commanded, as usual, the left wing of the 
Macedonians, found himself in imminent danger of being 
totally defeated; Mazseus, the general of the Persian cavalry, 
pressed very hard on that side, and, extending his gallant 
squadrons, began to surround his opponents by superiority of 
number. No sooner was Alexander informed of this new peril, 
than he desisted from the pursuit of Darius, and returned in 
haste to protect his left wing. When he arrived, the danger 
was past. The Persians had been suddenly dispirited by the 
sad tidings from other parts of the field ; Parmenio had revived 
the courage of his men, recovered his ground, and put the enemy 
to flight. 

By this additional success, the victory of the Macedonians and 
the defeat of the Persians were complete. According to Arrian, 
the battle of Arbela cost the vanquished three hundred thousand 
men, independently of prisoners; it certainly gave to Alexander 
the empire of Asia (b. c. 331), for it was soon followed by the 
surrender of Arbela, Babylon, Susa, Pasagarda, Persepolis, 
and Ecbatana, that is, of all the chief cities of the Persian em- 
pire; and, together with then 1 :, the conqueror received an amount 



236 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part IV. 

of treasures and riches equal in value to one hundred and 
eighty thousand talents of silver (nearly two hundred millions 
of dollars), with which he purposed partly to bestow magnificent 
rewards on his officers and soldiers, partly to defray the ex- 
penses of the war. 

On the other hand, no misfortune, no distress, can be ima- 
gined more deplorable than that of Darius on this occasion. 
He had hitherto used every possible means, nay sometimes base 
expedients, to arrest the course of his mighty rival, but had 
constantly failed ; in particular, he had often tried the cha«ces 
of war, and was invariably overcome. After his late disaster, 
he fled as far as Ecbatana, the capital of Media. Nor could he 
be safe there j the approach of Alexander obliged him to leave 
that city, and retire to a greater distance. In this continued 
flight, he was still followed by a respectable body of troops; but 
during their further march, Bessus, one of his generals, having 
bribed most of them, made himself master of the person of the 
king, whom he loaded with chains. When this traitor learned 
that the Macedonians were fast approaching, both he and his 
accomplices pierced Darius with their arrows, and left him 
covered with wounds, though still alive, at a short distance from the 
road. The unfortunate monarch was found in this sad condition 
by a Macedonian called Polystrates, of whom he asked a drink 
of water. Having received and taken it, he expressed his lively 
gratitude for the boon, and pressing the soldier's hand in his 
own, requested him to thank Alexander in his name for the 
great kindness he had shown to his family, and to recommend to 
the justice of that prince the punishment of a monster of ingra- 
titude and cruelty, who, by putting his king and benefactor to 
death, had outraged all sovereigns in his person. Having said 
this, he breathed his last. Alexander arrived a few moments 
after he had expired, and, weeping over him, caused his funeral 
obsequies to be performed with royal magnificence, and his body 
to be interred in the sepulchre of the kings his predecessors 
(b. c. 330).* 

* The great facility with which the Macedonians overthrew Darius 
and his empire, is thus described by the eloquent Bishop of Meaux: 

"Alexander, at the time of his accession to the throne, found the 
Macedonians not only inured to warfare, but also victorious over all 
their enemies, and nearly as superior to the other Greeks in valor and 
discipline, as the Greeks were superior to the Persians and the other 
nations of the east. 

"Darius Codomanus, who began at the same time to reign in Persia, 
was just, brave, generous, beloved by his subjects, and by no means 
deiicient either in ability or courage. But, if we compare him with 



b. c. 330—324. ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 237 

With Darius Codomanus ended the great Persian empire, 
after it had lasted two hundred and six years, from the time 
when Cyrus, its founder, began to reign over the united king- 
doms of Persia proper, Media and Babylonia. Shortly after, 
Bessus paid the just forfeit of his parricide. Being himself be- 
trayed by his officers, he fell into the hands of Alexander, and 
was condemned to be quartered, both as a chastisement of his 
crime, and a warning to all imitators of his cruel perfidy. 

I III. DISTURBANCES IN GREECE— FURTHER CONQUESTS OF 
ALEXANDER IN ASIA— HIS RETURN TO BABYLON, DEATH 
AND CHARACTER.— b. c. 330—324. 

Alexander was careful to show his satisfaction for past 
success, not only to those who actually followed his standard 
and were the instrument of his victories, but likewise to the 
Greeks at large, who had chosen him to be their common leader 
against the Persians. He ordered by letters, that every usur- 
pation and tyranny should be abolished throughout Greece, and 
freedom restored to all the towns. In behalf of the Plataeans, 
in particular, he directed that their city should be rebuilt, as a 
reward of the zeal and courage which their ancestors had evinced 
during the period of the Persian invasion. 

Whilst Alexander showed so much concern for the liberty of 
Greece, there were not wanting, among its inhabitants, those 
who dreaded the increase of his power, and who strove, by every 
means, to arrest or prevent its influence among them. Most 

Alexander ; his ability -with that bold and mighty genius ; his courage 
with that unconquerable valor which obstacles and dangers only served 
to animate ; his zeal for the defence of his empire, with that unquench- 
able thirst of glory which counted the greatest hardships as nothing, 
and faced death a thousand times ; or with that boundless ambition 
which wept at the idea of not being able to conquer more than one 
world; or, in fine, with that unbounded confidence which, filling Alex- 
ander's mind, convinced him that all must yield to his arms, a confi- 
dence which he communicated to his officers, nay to all his soldiers, 
in such a degree as to raise them, by this means, not only above diffi- 
culties, but even above themselves: if we thus carry on the comparison 
between Alexander and Darius, it will be easy to judge with which of 
the two victory must have sided. 

" Furthermore, if to this discrepancy of personal character between 
the two sovereigns, be added the difference of their military resources, 
and the vast superiority, in courage and discipline, of the Macedonians 
and Greeks over their enemies, it must be acknowledged that the Per- 
sian empire, attacked by soldiers like these and by such a hero as 
Alexander was, could not fail to be overthrown." — Bossuet, Discourse 
on Universal History, part iii. ch. 5. 



238 ANCIENT HISTORY. Pakt IV. 

of the Peloponnesian cities formed a league for this purpose, 
and calling into the field their bravest warriors, mustered an 
army of twenty thousand foot and two thousand horse. The 
Athenians, on whom Alexander had lavished many marks of 
esteem, had no share in this insurrection against his authority; 
the Lacedaemonians, on the contrary, took the lead in it, and 
pretended to assume to themselves the defence of Grecian free- 
dom. 

They might hope to derive advantage from the absence of 
Alexander, but they had not sufficiently considered the abilities 
and activity of his lieutenant. As soon as Antipater, the gover- 
nor of Macedon, was informed of the hostile confederacy formed 
in southern Greece, he led the troops left at his disposal in that 
direction, and, increasing their number from the contributions of 
those states which had remained faithful to the Macedonian 
party, he entered Peloponnesus at the head of forty thousand 
men. A furious and most obstinate battle was fought near 
Megalopolis, in Arcadia. The Lacedaemonians behaved with a 
courage worthy of their former renown ; but, having to contend 
against a general superior in skill as well as in the number of 
his forces, they were at last completely routed and driven from 
the field, with the loss of their intrepid king, Agis, and upwards 
of five thousand other combatants. The Macedonians did not 
lose more than a thousand soldiers ; however nearly all the rest 
were wounded. This decisive action baffled all the hopes, and 
weakened more than ever the strength of Sparta. 

Antipater immediately sent an account of his victory to Alex- 
ander; still, as a prudent courtier, he did not pretend to decide 
by himself the fate of the vanquished, but merely directed them 
to send deputies to the king for the purpose of imploring for- 
giveness and peace, which were granted on moderate terms. 
That general used this caution and reserve, not to wound the 
well known susceptibility of his sovereign, and yet he could 
scarcely avoid displeasing him. Alexander considered all glory 
acquired by others as a diminution of his own. He rejoiced 
that the Lacedamionians were conquered, but regretted that they 
had been conquered by any one but himself. Hence, no pre- 
caution of modesty and prudence could prevent him from utter- 
ing expressions which betrayed his jealousy, as when he said 
that the battle of Megalopolis, compared with his own achieve- 
ments, was nothing more than a battle of rats.* Such was the 

* Accepto victorise nuntio, suis operibus id discriinen comparans 
murium eaui pugnam fuisse cavillatus est. — Q. Curtius, b. vi, c. i, n. 1. 



B. c. 330—324. ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 239 

pride of this conqueror; he would be the sole possessor of mili- 
tary fame, sole master of the world. 

Still, in his personal career of success, there was assuredly 
enough to satisfy the utmost craving of human ambition. The 
three or four years which followed the battle of Arbela, were for 
him one continued series of new victories and conquests : the 
Drangians, Margians, Hircanians, Bactrians, Sogdians, and other 
tribes, yielded successively to his victorious arms; even the 
Scythians, that warlike and undaunted people of the north of 
Asia, were conquered by him in a great battle near the river 
Jaxartes. His troops, incessantly animated by his example, and 
hurried on, as it were, by his martial spirit and indefatigable 
ardor, subdued fortresses, cities, and countries, within a shorter 
time than it would take an ordinary traveller to visit them. He 
would frequently pursue an enemy for whole days and nights, 
giving himself and his soldiers scarcely any rest. By this 
astonishing rapidity, he came suddenly upon nations, who 
thought him at a great distance, and conquered them before 
they had time to provide against his attacks. This was the 
very idea which the Sacred Scripture had given of Alexander 
long before his birth, by representing him as a leopard and a he- 
goat, rushing forward with so much swiftness that his feet 
seemed not to touch the ground.* 

What must appear most astonishing, is that Alexander could 
find troops hardy enough to follow him through that series of 
toilsome expeditions. Such, however, was his good fortune : he 
knew how to conciliate in the highest degree the affection, de- 
votedness and obedience of his soldiers, and had such power over 
their minds and hearts as to obtain from them whatever he de- 
sired. Besides their just confidence in his abilities, the means 
by which he secured this influence over them, were his gracious 
manners and kindness in their regard, his assiduous care to con- 
fer on them merited praises or rewards, and his readiness to share 
in all their dangers and fatigues. Seeing, one day, a poor Mace- 
donian driving a mule laden with the king's money, and striving 
to relieve the wearied beast by taking the load on himself, he 
cried out to him : " Hold on, my friend, the rest of the way, and 
carry the burden to your own tent ; for the sum is yours, I give 
it to you." At the time of a difficult and harassing march through 
dreary places, some Macedonians, seeing the king greatly dis 
tressed with heat and thirst, presented him some water in a 
helmet. Alexander took the helmet, but observing that those 

* Daniel vii, 6, and viii, 5. 



240 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part IV. 

around him were suffering like himself, and that there was not water 
enough for all, he refused to drink, in order to encourage them 
to hear their sufferings more cheerfully. At the sight of this 
generous self-denial and magnanimity, the cavalry who accom- 
panied him, cried out that he might lead them withersoever he 
pleased ; that they were neither weary nor thirsty ; and that they 
should hardly think themselves mortal, whilst under the guidance 
of such a king. By means like these, did he endear himself to his 
soldiers, and secure their ready services on every occasion. 

Alexander might be said to have, at that period, reached the 
height of human glory; but about this time he plunged into an 
abyss of degrading excesses, and his uninterrupted success, which 
had commenced to blind his heart after the battle of Issus, wrought 
a fatal change in his moral character. Not satisfied with imitat- 
ing the Persian splendor and manners, he required adoration to 
be paid to him, at least by his new subjects. He began to indulge 
in intemperance and debauchery, and, in the paroxysms of his 
anger, often proved as formidable to his friends as he was in bat- 
tle to his enemies. He put to death, on a slight suspicion of 
conspiracy, his most distinguished generals, Philotas, the son of 
Parmenio, and Parmenio himself, whom he had lately appointed 
commander in Media. He caused the virtuous philosopher Cal- 
listhenes, who had rebuked his pride, to expire in the midst of 
torments ; and onae, when heated with wine, he killed with his 
own hand Clitus, the same officer that had saved his life in the 
battle of Granicus. Thus did a prince who aimed at the empire 
of the universe, often become the voluntary slave of his unruly 
passions, and thus did he, who wished to be considered and ho- 
nored even as a god, place himself beneath the condition of a 
reasonable creature. 

Still, as ambition continued his predominant vice until death, 
and as he saw that his Macedonian veterans were much displeased 
at his new manner of life, he marched towards India, both to oc- 
cupy their attention, and to add this celebrated country to his 
empire. In proportion as he advanced towards the river Indus, 
he besieged and took, though frequently at the risk of his life, 
cities and fortresses which seemed impregnable. When he had 
crossed that river, the terror of his name spreading far and wide, 
induced the various kings of the neighborhood to make their 
submission ; only one of them, called Poms, ventured to resist 
him and impede his progress. Having assembled a gallant army, 
this prince stationed himself on the banks of the Hydaspes, a 
deep, broad and rapid stream, and held himself in readiness to 
attack the Macedonians, as soon as they should attempt a passage. 



B. c. 336—324. ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 241 

Alexander very soon perceived that he would never succeed, 
by open force, in so difficult an attempt. He had therefore' re- 
course to stratagem ; and having, in sight of the enemy, made 
preparations to cross the river in a certain place, passed over it 
by night in another, during a frightful storm, the very violence 
of which favored the prosecution of his designs. A regular and 
pitched battle was the inevitable consequence. It was well con- 
tested; but, like every other fought by Alexander in person, 
terminated in the total defeat of the enemy. The Indians lost, 
besides their numerous elephants and chariots, twenty-three 
thousand men, with all their chief officers, among whom were 
two sons of Porus ; and that monarch himself, after having given 
to the end, proofs of the~most extraordinary courage, fell into 
the hands of his conqueror. He appeared before him with a dig- 
nified countenance, and when asked how he wished to be treated, 
nobly answered : " Like a king." Alexander, moved by this 
magnanimity of the Indian prince, did not permit himself to be 
surpassed in generous feelings ) he not only reinstated him in his 
kingdom, but even added to it several other provinces (b. c. 827). 

It was the intention of Alexander to proceed still farther 
through the east, and even to cross the Ganges, the greatest river 
of India, for the purpose of enlarging still more the boundaries 
of his empire. But the complaints, tears and entreaties of his 
army, naturally wearied with so many painful expeditions, in- 
duced him to retrace his steps towards the west. His return was 
marked by new adventures, hardships, dangers, battles and con- 
quests. When he arrived in Babylon, he had the pleasure to 
find there ambassadors from nearly all parts of the world, who 
had come to pay him homage ; he gave them audience with a 
dignity worthy of a great monarch, and, at the same time, with 
the affability of a prince desirous of winning universal affection. 
In the mean while, his mind was occupied with new enterprises, 
the conquest of Arabia, the circumnavigation of Africa, the war 
against Carthage, and the subjugation of Europe. Death, how- 
ever, did not allow him to execute any of these gigantic projects: 
at the close of a banquet in which he drank to excess, he was 
seized with a violent fever, and in a few days was reduced to the 
last extremity. As a last mark of affection, he presented his 
hand to kiss to his soldiers, and shortly after expired, at the age 
of nearly thirty-three, after a reign of twelve years (b. c. 324).* 

The death of this great conqueror, obliterating, as it were, the 

* Justin asserts (b. xiii, c. 13, 14.) that Alexander died by poison, and 
Q. Curtius (b. x. c. 4, n. 11) seems much inclined to admit the assertion 
of Justin. But Arrian and Flutarch are of a different opinion. The 

21 



242 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part IV. 

recollection of his faults, was equally lamented by his ancient and 
by his new subjects. The Macedonians called to mind his glory 
and magnificence ; the Persians, his equity and mildness in their 
regard. At the news of this last misfortune, Sysiganibis, the 
mother of Darius, shed a torrent of tears ; and that princess, who 
had borne with patience the sad fate of her son and the ruin of 
her family, could not endure the loss of Alexander. She refused 
to take food, and, in order not to survive what she considered the 
greatest of her calamities, voluntarily died of starvation. 

It is certain that Alexander possessed, with talents of the 
highest order, many noble and brilliant qvalities, invincible 
courage, inexhaustible liberality, generosity, kindness, etc. Still 
it is equally true, that his virtue was not steadfast enough to stand 
the test of extraordinary prosperity, and that his moral qualities 
were, towards the end of his life, more than counterbalanced by 
a variety of disgraceful excesses. 

As to his exploits, they certainly were, both in magnitude and 
rapidity, of the most brilliant description, and, if these suffice to 
deserve the appellation of Great, no prince deserved it more than 
Alexander. For, what conqueror ever accomplished as much in 
so short a time ? Who, like Alexander, subdued in person so 
many nations, tribes, and countries, and in less than twelve years, 
founded one of the most extensive empires that ever existed ? 
But, on the other hand, when we consider the motive of so many 
achievements : when we reflect that they originated in ambition 
and a thirst after military fame, and that no reasonable principle 
could prompt him to attack numberless nations who had never 
done him any injury, and to carry all the terrors of war, misery, 
desolation and bloodshed, into almost every part of the known 
world ; then our admiration at the exploits of Alexander is con- 
siderably diminished, and, if we cannot deny that he was a great 
conqueror, we are forced to admit that he was a great scourge to 
mankind. 

latter, in particular, gives several good reasons for believing the story of 
the poison to be a mere fable. 



PART V. 

FROM THE DEATH OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT (b. C. 324), TO THE END OF 
THE PUNIC WARS AND OF GRECIAN INDEPENDENCE, OR THE DESTRUCTION 
OF CARTHAGE AND CORINTH (b. C. 146). 



DISMEMBERMENT AND PARTITION OF ALEXANDER'S EMPIRE. 
b. c. 324—301. 

The worst effect of the conquests of Alexander was to inspire 
his generals with the same spirit of ambition by which he had 
been himself constantly actuated. We may justly ascribe to his 
knowledge of their dispositions in this respect, his refusal, whilst 
yet alive, to designate any one in particular to succeed him in the 
empire : he contented himself with confirming or at least with 
leaving his chief officers in the government of the various pro- 
vinces for which they had been already appointed, and foretold 
that his friends would celebrate his obsequies with many bloody 
battles.* This measure of the dying conqueror was fully equiva- 
lent to a division of his kingdom among them, as the first book of 
Machabees expresses it;*)" while his prediction was too soon and 
too fatally verified. 

The first years subsequent to the death of Alexander presented 
little else than a series of dissensions, usurpations, and wars 
among his first successors. In order to render themselves per- 
fectly independent in their respective governments, they began 
very soon to set aside — L some of them went so far as to destroy — 
the family of their ancient master. In the mean time, they had 
bloody conflicts among themselves, each endeavoring to obtain 
and secure a pre-eminence over the others. The only one 
among them who showed genuine loyalty, disinterestedness, and 
affection for the royal family, was Eumenes, the governor of 
Cappadocia. Unfortunately, this brave general, after a multitude 
of splendid exploits, was betrayed into the hands of Antigonus, 

* Q. Curtius, b. x, cap. 5, n. 12. f 1 Mack, i, 7. 

243 



244 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part V. 

who yielding to the impulse of ambition, put him to death in 
the year b. c. 315, although they had formerly been on terms of 
friendship. 

This Antigonus, having acquired great influence in all western 
Asia, provoked the fears or distrust of the other governors through- 
out the empire. These were Ptolemy in Egypt, Seleucus in Ba- 
bylonia, Cassander, the son of Antipater, in Macedonia, and 
Lysimachus in Thrace. At the suggestion of Seleucus, they all 
entered into a confederacy against Antigonus as a common ene- 
my, and promised to co-operate with each other in checking his 
ambitious career. 

Antigonus, on his part, prepared to withstand the attack of so 
many opponents. Although he could not prevent the formation 
of their league against him, still he vigorously opposed their 
united efforts, being ably seconded by his son Demetrius, sur- 
named Poliorcetes. This young prince was remarkable for his 
noble appearance, and still more for his genius, activity and 
courage : when occupied with some military enterprise, he spoke 
and acted like a hero; in the other circumstances of life, he 
seemed the personification of effeminacy and luxury. This diver- 
sity in his character and conduct appeared likewise in his for- 
tunes, and rendered his whole life an alternation of extraordinary 
prosperity and signal disasters. 

When Demetrius began to command armies, he was only 
twenty-two years of age. He lost a first battle at Gaza, near 
the Egyptian frontier, but shortly after was victorious in a 
second, and secured to his father, at least for a time, the possess- 
sion of the neighboring provinces, Phenicia, Palestine, and Ccelo- 
Syria. Afterwards, passing over to the continent of Greece, he 
made himself master of Athens, then governed by Cassander 
(b. c. 306), and the same year, gained a complete victory at sea 
over Ptolemy. The engagement took place near the shores of 
the island of Cyprus. Poliorcetes, having given proper direc- 
tions to his officers, bore down upon the Egyptian fleet with so 
much vigor and impetuosity, that one-half of it was destroyed 
and sunk, and nearly all the other vessels were captured, toge- 
ther with the transports, ammunition, provisions, military chest, 
and a large number of prisoners. Of one hundred and fifty 
vessels, not more than eight made their escape with Ptolemy. 

This achievement, so splendid in itself, became still more 
honorable to the conqueror, from the noble use he made of his 
advantage, and the feelings of kindness and humanity evinced 
by him on the occasion. He caused magnificent obsequies to be 
performed for the slain. He received most of the prisoners 



b. c. 324—301. DISMEMBERMENT, ETC. 245 

among his own troops, and as to the brother and the son of 
Ptolemy, who were among the captives, he generously set them 
at liberty, and dismissed them without ransom, together with 
their friends, their attendants, and all their baggage, as a token 
of his gratitude, and in return for the like generous kindness 
experienced by himself from Ptolemy at the battle of Gaza. 

At this period, Antigonus and Demetrius, emboldened by suc- 
cess, assumed the title of kings ; the leaders of the opposite party 
did the same, and notwithstanding their losses, determined to 
carry on the contest with renewed vigor. This resolution was a 
source of new calamities for the many countries destined to be 
the theatres of the war. 

Demetrius, being now master of Cyprus, directed his efforts 
against the island and city of Rhodes, whose inhabitants had 
provoked his resentment by refusing to join him in the late war 
against the Egyptians. He attacked them with a fleet of two 
hundred sail, besides a very great number of transports, and an 
army of about forty thousand men, not including the cavalry. 
But the Khodians were dismayed neither by the force nor by the 
reputation of their enemy: being themselves a brave and warlike 
people, and well skilled in naval tactics, they made every pre- 
paration to repel the attack of the besiegers. 

If the attack was vigorous, the resistance was not less spirited. 
If on the one side Demetrius, who possessed an inventive genius, 
contrived a variety of machines to throw darts and stones, and to 
batter the walls and ramparts of the city ; the besieged, on their 
part, contrived every means to injure or even destroy these formi- 
dable engines, and succeeded in rendering many of them harmless. 
The indefatigable Demetrius invented and built new ones of 
various sizes, among others, a wooden tower called Helepolis, 
which was at least one hundred feet, or nine stories high, and, 
although admirably constructed and made to roll on large 
wheels, required three thousand four hundred robust men to put 
it in motion. 

This amazing tower, filled with smaller engines, missiles and 
combatants, seemed to forebode the approaching fall of the city. 
The Rhodians, unable to destroy it by fire, had recourse, it is 
said, to another expedient, which proved more successful : they 
undermined the ground over which the Helepolis had to pass in 
its approach to the walls ; when it reached that place, the earth 
gave way beneath it, and the whole machine sank so deep, that 
no exertion of the besiegers could raise it again. This accident, 
very probably, as well as other disappointments of a similar na- 
ture, without damping the courage of Demetrius, rendered him 

21* 



246 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part V. 

more tractable. The Rhodians, too, were equally weary of a 
siege which threatened a fatal result to their capital, and were 
equally desirous of peace. The two parties, therefore, were 
easily induced to come to an agreement. Through the media- 
tion of the Athenians, it was concluded on terms honorable and 
advantageous to both, viz. that the Rhoclian republic, and all its 
citizens, should retain the enjoyment of their rights, privileges 
and liberty, without being subjected to any power whatever; 
that their former alliance with Antigonus should be confirmed 
and renewed, with an obligation on their part to take up arms 
for him in all future wars, except against Ptolemy; finally, that 
the city should deliver a hundred hostages to Demetrius for the 
security of the stipulated articles. As soon as the hostages were 
given, the besiegers evacuated the island. 

Demetrius, wishing to give before his departure a mark of his 
esteem to the Rhodians, made them a present of the military en- 
gines hitherto employed in the siege of their city. They sold 
these machines, and the produce of the sale wa» spent in erecting 
the famous Colossus, or brazen statue of the sun, between whose 
feet vessels had to pass when entering or leaving the harbor. 
This" colossus, being soon after overthrown by an earthquake, lay 
on the ground till the seventh century of the Christian era, when 
the Saracens, having subdued the island of Cyprus, sold it to a 
Jewish merchant, who loaded with it nine hundred camels. (See 
Modern History, p. 173.) 

During the siege of Rhodes, Demetrius gave a signal proof of 
his relish for the fine arts. There lived in the suburbs of that 
city the celebrated painter Protogenes, a native of Caria ; neither 
the presence of the enemies who surrounded him, nor the tumult 
of arms, could induce him to quit his habitation or discontinue 
his work. Being asked the reasons, he replied : " Because I 
know that Demetrius has declared war against the Rhodians, and 
not against the arts." Nor was he deceived in his opinion ; for 
Demetrius actually showed himself his greatest protector. He 
placed a guard round the house of Protogenes in order that the 
artist might enjoy tranquillity, or at least be secure from danger 
amidst the ravages of war ; nay, he frequently went to see him 
at work, and never could sufficiently admire the talent and the 
application of this great painter. 

At the same time, the Athenians called Demetrius to their 
assistance against Cassander, who was besieging their city. In 
compliance with this request, he sailed with a fleet of three hun- 
dred and thirty ships, and a numerous body of land forces. 
With these he not only drove Cassander out of Attica, but en- 



B.C. 324-301. DISMEMBERMENT, ETC. 247 

tirely defeated him near Thermopylae and returning to the south, 
gained other advantages and took a large number of cities 
Having in this manner crushed the party of his opponents in 
Greece, he set out for Asia, to join his father Antigonus and ad- 
vance with him, at the head of their joint forces, against the 
chief army of the confederates, commanded by Seleucus and 
Lysimachus. The former had more than seventy thousand foot, 
ten thousand horse, and seventy-five elephants. The infantry of 
the latter consisted of sixty-four thousand men, their cavalry of 
ten thousand five hundred; they had four hundred elephants, and 
one hundred and twenty armed chariots. Thus the two armies 
were nearly equal in number and strength. They came in sight 
near the city of Ipsus in Phrygia, where they soon engaged in 
the bloody conflict which was to decide the partition of Alex- 
ander's empire. 

At the very commencement of the battle, Demetrius, with his 
best cavalry, fell upon Antiochus, the son of Seleucus, and 
fought with so much valor that he put the enemy to flight. 
But having, through a vain desire of glory, rashly continued the 
pursuit of the vanquished, he lost a victory that was decidedly 
his, if he had known how to improve his first advantage; when 
he returned from the pursuit, he found the field completely oc- 
cupied and the passage obstructed by the elephants of Seleucus, 
absolutely preventing him from rejoining his own army. This 
accident occasioned another still more disastrous, the surrender 
of his infantry to the confederates, whilst a strong detachment 
of their troops rushed against Antigonus, who was vainly expect- 
ing the return of his son. The old king maintained for a time 
the unequal contest, and fought with desperate courage; but he 
fell at last under a shower of darts. Demetrius, seeing every 
thing lost, collected nine thousand soldiers, and fled with them 
to Ephesus, whence he shortly after returned to Greece (b. c. 
301.) 

The battle of Ipsus produced the final partition of the empire 
of Alexander. The four allied princes distributed among them- 
selves the dominions of their vanquished enemy, and added them 
to their own. Egypt, Libya, Phenicia, Coelo-Syria and Pales- 
tine were allotted to Ptolemy ; Macedon and Greece, to Cassan- 
der ; Thrace and Bithynia, with a few more districts, to Lysima- 
chus ; and all the other provinces to Seleucus, who thus greatly 
surpassed his allies in extent of territory. His kingdom gene- 
rally went by the name of the kingdom of Syria, because it was 
in Syria that he established his chief residence, and built on the 
banks of the Orontes his capital city, Antioch, so called after 



248 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part V. 

his son or his father Antiochus. But his Syrian provinces were 
far from being the whole or even the main part of his monarchy; 
it comprised, moreover, all those rich and extensive countries 
lying between the river Indus and the Euphrates, which properly 
constituted the Persian empire. 

Thus was literally and fully accomplished the prophecy of 
Daniel, written upwards of two hundred years before, that the 
empire of Alexander would be divided into four kingdoms, among 
persons, not of his posterity, but of his nation, and that none of 
them would be equal to him in strength and power.* As the 
history of these kingdoms generally does not offer much interest, 
we will present to the reader merely a rapid sketch of them, 
down to the time in which both their national transactions and 
the affairs of Greece began to be closely connected with those of 
the Romans. 

KINGDOM OF EGYPT.— b. c. 301—221. 

Egypt, as has been already mentioned, fell to the lot of 
Ptolemy son of Lagus, and surnamed Soter or deliverer, a sur- 
name given him by the Rhodians, in acknowledgment of the 
signal services which he had conferred on them in their greatest 
dangers. He reigned about forty years, if we reckon from the 
death of Alexander, and sixteen from the battle of Ipsus. This 
prince was the ablest as well as the best sovereign of his dynasty, 
and left many examples of virtue which very few of his succes- 
sors took the trouble to imitate. He displayed, whilst on the 
throne, the same plainness and modesty which characterized him 
before his accession ; and, when told that his dignity required 
greater pomp and splendor, he answered that a king ought to 
make his true greatness consist, not in being rich himself, but in 
enriching others. 

Ptolemy was a patron of learning. He did much to promote 
its progress in his kingdom, and laid the foundation of the Alex- 
andrian library, so justly famed for the number of its volumes, 
which amounted in the course of time to no fewer than seven 
hundred thousand. 

Ptolemy Lagus had for his successor Ptolemy II, or Philadel- 
phus, (that is, friend of his brothers), thus ironically surnamed, 
because he had, under the plea of self-defence, put two of his 
brothers to death. This prince inherited from his father a great 
esteem and relish for the fine arts, sciences, and learned men. 

* Daniel viii, 21, 22 ; and xi, 3, 4. 



b. c. 801—221. KINGDOM OF EGYPT. 249 

He completed, in the first year of his reign, the building of the 
lighthouse of Pharos, one of the seven wonders of the world ; it 
was a square and lofty tower of white marble, bearing on its 
summit a perpetual light, to guide during the night vessels ap- 
proaching the shores of Egypt. The king made also valuable 
additions to the library founded by his predecessor, and enriched 
it with a translation of the sacred books of the Old Testament 
from the Hebrew into Greek — this is the version known under 
the name of the Sqituagint, or version of the seventy interpret- 
ers. This work is supposed to have been executed at the sug- 
gestion of Demetrius Phalereus, who, after having governed 
Athens with great wisdom for ten years, had withdrawn into 
Egypt, and become the superintendent of the Alexandrian library. 

Ptolemy Philadelphia devoted his chief care to the improve- 
ment of commerce in his kingdom. To effect his purpose, he 
secured excellent harbors on the north and east of Egypt, equip- 
ped an immense number of vessels of every size, and established, 
by means of a canal and the. river Nile, an easy communication 
between the Pted and Mediterranean seas. By these means, he 
placed nearly all the trade of the Oriental nations in the hands 
of his subjects, and rendered Alexandria the general emporium 
of the then known world, of which it occupied, as it were, the 
centre. That city, shortly after its origin, increased most rapidly, 
and rose in a few years to an astonishing degree of splendor and 
prosperity. It not only remained the capital of Egypt under 
all the Ptolemcean kings, but even continued, for a long time 
after, the chief city of the whole eastern continent. 

The reign of Ptolemy Philadelphia lasted thirty-eight years, 
from b. c. 285 to 247. The next sovereign of Egypt was 
Ptolemy III, or Evergetes, that is, the heneficent, a title bestowed 
on him by the gratitude of his subjects. He had scarcely 
ascended the throne, when he undertook to avenge the death of 
his sister Berenice, queen of Syria, whom her rival, Laodice, 
had caused to be cruelly murdered. A powerful army, sup- 
ported by numerous auxiliaries, enabled him to make the Syrian 
court feel all the weight of his indignation. Not satisfied with 
putting Laodice to death, he overran all the provinces of that 
monarchy on the western side of the Tigris, and, besides taking 
a prodigious number of gold and silver vessels, carried away the 
enormous sum of forty' thousand talents (between forty and fifty 
millions of dollars). 

On his return, Evergetes passed through Jerusalem, where he 
offered many sacrifices to the true God in thanksgiving for his 
victories over the Syrians- He died in the year b. c. 221, after 



250 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part V. 

a reign of twenty-six years, and was the last prince of his dy* 
nasty who showed some moderation and virtue ; most of those 
who came after him, whilst they assumed magnificent appellations 
or surnames, were monsters of wickedness and profligacy. 



KINGDOM OF SYRIA.— b. c. 301—223. 

The same remark may be applied to the contemporary kings 
of Syria, with the exception of a few, among whom must be chiefly 
reckoned Seleucus Nlcanor or conqueror, and the founder of this 
monarchy. Although his good qualities were occasionally tainted 
by ambition, still it cannot be denied that he was a brave, active, 
magnanimous, and truly able sovereign. Besides Antioch, his 
capital, he built throughout his dominions many other considerable 
cities, such as Apamea, Laodicea, Seleucia near Antioch, and 
another Seleucia on the banks of the Tigris. The situation and 
magnificence of the latter, by attracting the inhabitants of Babylon, 
greatly contributed to the utter decay of this once superb capital 
of the Chaldeans. 

Seleucus had hitherto been on terms of friendly alliance with 
Lysimachus, king of Thrace j but towards the close of their life, 
and when both were more than eighty years old, they became 
enemies. Seleucus invaded the districts belonging to his oppo- 
nent in Asia Minor, and when the latter advanced to impede his 
progress, defeated and slew him in a battle fought in Phrygia 
(b . c. 281 ). With Lysimachus fell the kingdom of Thrace, after 
a short duration of about twenty years : being now dismembered, 
it was made the prey of several occupants, and its Asiatic pro- 
vinces, in particular, formed the small kingdoms of Pergamus 
and Bithynia. 

As to Seleucus, he had the pleasure of seeing himself the only 
surviving general of Alexander the Great, and conqueror of the 
conquerors of the world. But his joy and triumph did not last 
long; only seven months after his victory over Lysimachus, he 
was basely assassinated by Ptolemy Ceraunus, an Egyptian 
prince, whom he had kindly received at his court and loaded 
with benefits. 

Antiochus Soier, the son of Seleucus Nicanor, reigned after 
him during nineteen years (B.C. 280 — 261). He did nothing very 
remarkable, and was succeeded by his son, Antiochus II, impiously 
surnamed Theos, or god. The reign of this pretended god was 
most unhappy. Whilst he was engaged in a war against Egypt, 
the Parthians, provoked by the wickedness and profligacy of their 
governor, began to shake off the Syrian yoke, and took for their 



b. o. 301—220. KINGDOM OF MACEDQN. 251 

leader Arsaces, a man of obscure birth, but of great valor and 
ability (b. C. 250); this was the origin of the Parthian empire, 
afterwards so formidable even to the Roman power. The ex- 
ample of insurrection set by the Parthians was followed by other 
nations in their neighborhood, and the proud monarch of Syria 
lost all his provinces beyond the Tigris. 

This same Antiochus Theos, by his successive marriage with 
two rival queens, brought upon Syria the many disasters which 
have been already mentioned in the history of the Egyptian 
kings. It is true, however, that most of these evils, of which 
Antiochus himself was the first victim, cannot be imputed to him, 
but to his first wife Laodice and their son Seleucus Callinicus, 
both of them the real contrivers of the cruel death inflicted on 
King Ptolemy's sister. This Seleucus had an inglorious reign of 
about twenty years (b. c. 246 — 226), and died a prisoner among 
the Parthians. The next sovereign, Seleucus Ceraunus, was 
equally insignificant. He held the Syrian sceptre for a short 
time only, and was succeeded (b. c. 223) by his brother Anti- 
ochus the Great, whose reign, of which we shall speak fully 
hereafter, was much more conspicuous in every respect, and last- 
ed thirty-six years. 

KINGDOM OF MACEDON, b. c. 301-220.— SPARTA UNDER THE 
CONTEMPORARY KINGS AGIS AND CLEOMENES. 

Cassander, one of the four allied princes who had destroyed 
the power of Antigonus in Asia, remained undisturbed possessor 
of the Macedonian kingdom. After his decease, in the year b. c. 
298, his two sons commenced against each other, about their 
succession to the throne, an unnatural struggle, which terminated 
in the death of the one and the expulsion of the other. During 
that interval, Demetrius Poliorcetes had continued, notwithstand- 
ing his defeat at Ipsus, to wage war against various opponents and 
with varied success ; at the news of these dissensions between the 
two brothers, he hastened to interfere, and turning every thing to 
his own profit, was himself declared king of Macedon. 

"When he saw his power sufficiently established in that country, 
he began to devise new schemes of conquest. He aimed at nothing 
less than the recovery of all his father's dominions, and was al- 
ready making, throughout Greece, stupendous preparations for 
this purpose, wheu information was given him that his affairs were 
considerably on the decline in Macedon; moreover, most of the 
numerous troops that he had mustered, deserted his party for that 
of a new competitor, the famous Pyrrhus, king of Epirus. In 



252 ANCIENT HISTORY. Pabt V. 

this sudden reverse of fortune, Demetrius resolved to set sail for 
Asia, in quest of new adventures. Here also, disappointment 
followed disappointment. Finding himself gradually stripped of 
all his resources, and deprived of nearly all his soldiers by de- 
sertion or the hardships of warfare, he at last delivered himself 
into the hancfs of Seleucus, the king of Syria. This prince treat- 
ed the illustrious captive with much kindness, and in a manner 
suitable to his rank; Demetrius, however, never recovered his 
liberty, but died after a captivity of three years, at the age of 
fifty-four, of a distemper occasioned by long inactivity and exces- 
sive indulgence of his appetite (b. c. 283). 

During his captivity, Antigonus Gonatas, his son, had evinced 
the most sincere and touching sentiments of filial affection. He 
wrote to the other kings, and to Seleucus himself, to obtain the 
release of his father, offering whatever he possessed, even his own 
person and liberty, for the ransom of Demetrius. In recompense, 
as it were, for this heroic filial piety, Antigonus Gronatas obtained 
the Macedonian throne; he occupied it thirty-four years (b. c. 276 
— 242), and transmitted it to his .posterity, in whose possession 
it remained whilst Macedon continued an independent kingdom. 

The first successor of Gonatas was Demetrius II, who reigned 
ten years, and made the conquest of Cyrenaica and all Lybia. 
The reign of the next king, Antigonus Doto, was still more re- 
markable, on account of the great share he took in the affairs of 
Sparta and other Peloponnesian cities. 

Sparta, or Lacedamion, was no longer that mighty and influen- 
tial republic which it had been during many previous ages. A 
succession of enemies, provoked by its haughtiness, restlessness and 
ambition, had vied, as it were, with one another in the attempt to 
lower it in the scale of nations; but it had gradually undergone 
a still greater and more fatal change in its manners, its institutions, 
and its morals. Contempt of riches and austerity of life were now 
replaced by avarice and luxury. Men of fortune sought by every 
means, lawful or unlawful, to increase their possessions, whilst 
the rest of the city was filled with an insignificant rabble, without 
property or honor, who had neither heart nor spirit to defend their 
country against wars abroad, and who were always watching an 
opportunity for changes and revolutions at home. 

For these reasons, King Agis V thought it a noble undertaking 
to reform the manners of the people, and revive the laws of Ly- 
curgus. In so delicate a matter, he sounded, first, the inclinations 
of his subjects. The young men listened to him with a readiness 
beyond his expectation, and with him adopted the cause of virtue ; 
but most of those far advanced in age, being also too far gone in 



B, c. 301-220. KINGDOM OF MACEDON. 253 

vice, were as much afraid, says Plutarch, of the name of Lycurgus, 
as a fugitive slave, when brought back, is of that of his master. 
They inveighed, therefore, against Agis for his being displeased at 
the present state of things, and desirous to restore the former dig- 
nity of Sparta. He was opposed, betrayed, and persecuted by the 
very magistrates who should have been the most zealous in pro- 
moting his noble attempt, and a sentence of the ephori condemned 
to a cruel and ignominious death the most virtuous prince that La- 
eedsemon had possessed for a long period (about the year b. c. 240). 

As Agis was going to execution, he perceived one of the officers 
lamenting his fate with tears : "My friend/'said he to him, " cease 
to weep over me ; since I suffer innocently, I am in a better con- 
dition than those who condemn me contrary to law and justice." 
Having said this, he cheerfully offered his neck to the executioner. 
His mother Agesistrata and his grandmother Archidamia, for 
having countenanced the schemes of the young king, suffered 
the same punishment with him, and in the same dungeon. Ar- 
chidamia was executed first, without any regard to her rank, her 
virtues, and her very advanced age. Agesistrata was then in- 
troduced into the prison. Beholding her son extended on the 
ground, and her mother hanging by the neck, she exclaimed : 
"My son, your excessive moderation and lenity have ruined both 
you and us." She then showed herself ready to meet her fate, and 
said, with a sigh for her country : " May all this be for the good 
of Sparta!" When these events were reported in the city, and 
the three bodies were carried out, the melancholy spectacle filled 
the people with grief, terror and indignation ; they were persuaded 
that there had not been such an exhibition of villany and impiety 
in Sparta, since the Dorians first inhabited Peloponnesus.* 

Cleomenes, who reigned shortly after him, was not dismayed 
by the unhappy fate of his predecessor. With great energy of 
mind, language, and action, which he even carried at first to vio- 
lence and despotism, he set about the work of social reformation, 
and having, in one way or another, removed all the influential 
persons who opposed his views, he saw his exertions attended with 
much greater success than the mildness of Agis had been able to 
obtain. Unfortunately both for him and his country, he engaged 
in a war against the Achneans, who were then the most powerful 
people of Peloponnesus. The final result of this war, the begin- 

* Plutarch in Agid. The life of Agis is one of the most interesting among 
the lives written by Plutarch, and is not encumbered with that multitude 
of superstitious tales, omens, dreams, etc. which often disfigure the 
narrative of that otherwise judicious historian. 

22 



254 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part V. 

ning of which was very auspicious, blasted for ever the hopes and 
promising aspect of the affairs of Sparta, and ruined Cleomenes 
himself. 

Cleomenes, although still young, showed that he was possessed 
of great military skill as well as courage. With only a small force 
at his disposal, he inflicted frequent and severe losses on his ene- 
mies; so much so, that the Achaeans, finding themselves after 
many defeats unable to resist him, called Antigonus Doto, the 
Macedonian king, to their assistance. At this time, Cleomenes 
had already made himself master of several of their most im- 
portant cities, such as Argos and Corinth. Even the advance of 
the Macedonian troops did not prevent him, at first, from ex- 
ecuting many bold and glorious undertakings. Still, their su- 
perior numbers compelled him to evacuate his recent conquests 
and to make a retrograde march, till, being determined to give 
way no longer, he occupied a strong position in the passes of 
Sellasia, stationed most of his troops on the neighboring hills, and 
waited for the enemy. 

The two armies were far from being equal in numerical strength, 
there being thirty thousand men on the side of Antigonus, and 
only twenty thousand on that of Cleomenes; but the advantages 
of the situation were manifestly in favor of the latter, so that 
each party had good reason to flatter itself with the hope of suc- 
cess. As both wished to render the engagement decisive, the 
battle was obstinately disputed, at least where the two kings 
commanded in person. Sometimes, the Lacedaemonians were 
nearly overwhelmed by the attack of the Macedonian phalanx; 
at other times, the Macedonians were obliged to give ground be- 
fore Spartan valor. At last, the troops of Antigonus, advancing 
with levelled lances, charged the enemy with that force which 
rendered the shock of the phalanx irresistible, and drove them 
from their intrenchments. The whole army then fled in dis- 
order, and a general slaughter ensued. According to what we 
read in Plutarch, great numbers of the mercenaries of Sparta 
were killed, and, of six thousand Lacedaemonians, no more than 
two hundred made their escape* (b, c. 222). 

This bloody defeat destroyed for ever the hopes of Sparta, as to 
the revival of her former laws and glory. Cleomenes, who had 
acted like a hero in the engagement, and who now saw every thing 
lost, advised the citizens to receive Antigonus; as for himself, he 
came to a different determination, respecting his own future des- 

* Plutarch, in Cleomen. — The other particulars of the battle are related 
at full length by Polybius, Gen. Hist. b. ii, ch. 5. 



B. 6. 251—214. ACTLEAN LExYGUE - ARATUS. 255 

tiny and, without taking any food, drink or rest, which he how- 
everso much needed, embarked for Egypt. Here, his virtues and 
talents gained him the esteem and confidence of King Ptolemy 
Evergetes; but, after. the death of that monarch, which occurred 
about this time, and under his unworthy successor, Philopator, 
Cleomenes abandoned all hope. Finding himself most unjustly 
treated by a profligate court, he made an effort to recover his 
liberty by open force, and perished in the attempt. 

We left the victorious Doto near the walls of Sparta. _ The in- 
habitants, in compliance with the advice of their late king, sub- 
mitted to their conqueror; Antigonus, on his part, acted towards 
them rather as a friend than a master, and expressed a wish that 
posterity should say of him, that the only prince who had the 
honor of taking their city, had also the honor of preserving it. 
He remained but two or three days with them, and returned in 
haste to his own kingdom, having received information that it 
was attacked by the Illyrians. Although he actually lingered 
under that terrible disease, the consumption, still he had sufficient 
time and courage to gain a signal victory over the barbarians; he 
died shortly after (b. C. 221 or 220), with the rare reputation of 
a prosperous management of the internal affairs of his country, 
and of great success in his foreign wars. He was succeeded by 
his ward and nephew, Philip, whose long reign of forty-two years 
will afterwards deserve a separate chapter. 

The close connexion of events requires that we should relate here 
the history of the Achaean league, which was the last bulwark of 
Grecian liberty, first under Aratus, and then under Philopoemen. 

HISTORY OF THE ACIL3EAN LEAGUE UNDER ARATUS. 
b. c. 251—214. 

The republic of the Achaaans, thus called from Achaia, a dis- 
trict of Peloponnesus, owed its influence in the beginning not to 
the number of its troops, or the influence of its riches, or the ex- 
tent of its territory, but to its great reputation for integrity and 
justice. It originally consisted of twelve inconsiderable towns, 
whose form of government strikingly resembled, though on a 
small scale, that of the United States of America. For, the towns 
which composed it, although independent of each other and placed 
on a footing of perfect equality, were subject to one common and 
supreme authority, a council of representatives, who met twice a 
year to discuss and decide the affairs of the whole nation ; and to 
one executive power, composed of a praetor or president (there 
were two in more ancient times), annually elected by a plurality 



256 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part V 

of votes, and ten officers of state, his assistants and counsellors. 
It belonged to the general assembly to declare war, to make peace, 
to conclude treaties, to dispose of vacant offices, to watch over the 
fidelity of each particular state to the terms of the confederacy, 
and to provide for all the important wants of the commonwealth. 
The office of the praetor was to command the army, to preside in 
the diet, and to propose matters for deliberation; but he could 
propose nothing without the previous approbation of the body of 
his counsellors. 

The good order which reigned in this little republic, at last 
drew over to it places of considerable importance. Sicyon, one of 
the chief cities of Peloponnesus, set the example. Its inhabitants, 
having been delivered from the yoke of a usurper by their fellow 
citizen Aratus, a virtuous and distinguished young man, readily 
followed his advice in this matter, and joined the Achaean con- 
federacy (b. c. 251). 

A few years later, Aratus, being chosen general of the Achaeans 
for the second time, rendered a signal service not only to their 
nation, but to all Greece, by wresting the Corinthian citadel, 
which was the key of Peloponnesus, from the hands of the Mace- 
donians. He embarked on this perilous enterprise with uncom- 
mon disinterestedness and generosity. He hesitated not to pledge 
his most valuable property to defray the expenses of the expedition, 
and then at the risk of his own life executed his design with a 
prudence, boldness and courage which did him immense honor, 
and gained him the highest reputation among the Greeks. 

When every thing was ready for the attempt, Aratus chose four 
hundred brave soldiers, and having provided them with ladders, 
led them at night to the foot of the Corinthian ramparts. Some 
of them began by surprising and killing the sentinels at one of 
the gates. At the same time, the ladders were applied to the 
walls as silently as possible, and Aratus, with one hundred men, 
entered the city with the utmost expedition. The rest he com- 
manded to follow in the best manner they could, whilst he himself, 
animated by this first success, hastened at the head of his party to 
advance through the town towards the citadel. 

This resolute band met a small guard of four men who had 
lights in their hands, and whom they clearly saw, without being 
seen by them on account of the surrounding. darkness: they kill- 
ed three of the four; but the other, only wounded, fled with all 
speed, and cried aloud that the enemies were in the city. In a 
moment, the trumpets sounded the alarm, the people flocked into 
the streets, and the whole town was filled with uproar and 
confusion. Still, Aratus marched on, and began with his brave 



B. c. 251—214. ACILEAN LEAGUE— ARATUS. 257 

followers to climb the craggy rock upon which the citadel was 
built. They reached the height at a spot where the rampart was 
less difficult of access, but having failed to surprise, were obliged 
to fight, hand to hand, the soldiers of the garrison, who made a 
very vigorous defence. 

In the mean time, the three hundred men left behind, not 
being able to discover the path which Aratus had followed, drew 
themselves up in a compact body under an impending rock, and 
there waited in the utmost anxiety and distress. They heard 
the cries of the combatants ; but as the noise was echoed by the 
neighboring mountains, they could not distinguish whence it first 
came, and knew not which way to direct their course. Just at 
that moment, a body of Macedonian soldiers, hastening to the 
relief of the garrison in the citadel, passed before them, without 
the least idea of their own danger. As soon as they had passed, 
the three hundred Achaeans fell with great fury on their rear, 
and put some of them to the sword, whilst the rest saved them- 
selves by a precipitate flight. A guide then came from Aratus, 
to conduct the conquerors to the citadel, where their assistance 
was greatly needed ; having at last joined their friends, they 
made together so vigorous an effort that the garrison could not 
resist, and the victorious Achaeans saw themselves, at the break 
of day, absolute masters of the fortress. 

Aratus had no sooner secured his conquest, than overlooking 
his excessive fatigue, he descended into the city, and was met 
in the theatre by an immense concourse of people. When he 
appeared, all were eager to testify their profound respect and 
gratitude for him by repeated acclamations. Aratus delivered to 
the Corinthians the keys of their city, which had not been in 
their hands from the time of King Philip; this act of generosity 
won them entirely over to his cause, and in compliance with 
his exhortations, they joined the confederacy of the Achaeans 
(b. c. 243.) 

During the ensuing years, Aratus restored freedom to several 
other cities of Peloponnesus, and continually increased the forces 
of the Achaean league. This conduct -rendered him very dear to 
the Greeks, whose predominant characteristic was an ardent love 
of liberty; still, his wars against the Lacedaemonians detracted 
much from his reputation, especially as a general. Cleomenes, 
one of the bravest kings that Sparta ever had, was willing to join 
the Achaeans, on condition that he should be appointed their 
chief leader j but Aratus would not consent to resign an honor he 
had enjoyed for more than thirty years, and thus lose the reward 
of his services. His unwillingness to comply with the wishes of 

22* 



258 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part V. 

Cleonienes, exposed him still more to the attacks of the Spartans. 
Being repeatedly defeated by them, and anxious to stop the 
course of their victories, he committed another great fault, namely 
that of calling to his assistance those very Macedonians whom 
he himself had formerly expelled from Corinth.* 

King Antigonus Doto readily acceded to the proposal, though 
he made the Achaean s pay dearly for his services. Besides 
enjoying the chief command of their troops as long as he remained 
among them, he required and obtained that the citadel of Corinth 
should again receive a Macedonian garrison ; by this impolitic 
measure, the Achaeans fell into a sort of subjection to the kings 
of Macedon, who took advantage of it to interfere more and more 
in the affairs of Greece. This new state of things lasted till the 
Macedonians were defeated by the Romans, and Philopcemen 
restored by his victories the glory and power of the Achaean 
republic. 

ACHiEAN LEAGUE UNDER PHILOPCEMEN.— b. c. 206—183. 

Philopoemen was born at Megalopolis, a city of Peloponnesus, 
towards the year b. c. 253. From his youth, he inured himself 
to a hard, laborious and active life, and readily entered upon the 
course of such exercises as might render him an excellent war- 
rior. His exertions to that effect were perfectly successful; 
being equally well qualified to fight and to command, he yielded 
to no soldier in vigor and courage, nor to any officer in prudence 
and ability. At the age of thirty, he signalized himself in the 
famous battle of Sellasia, and to him, more than to any other, 
was Antigonus indebted for his victory. The king acknowledged 
this after the battle, in a manner very flattering and honorable 
to Philopoemen. Feigning to be angry, because the cavalry had 
charged before the signal was given, and being answered by the 
commander of that body that the fault was to be laid entirely to 
the account of a young Megalopolitan officer, the king replied : 
"This young man, by seizing the proper moment for action, has 
performed the part of a prudent and experienced general ; and 
you, the general, have acted the part of an unskilful young man." 

Philopoemen deserved by his services to be appointed comman- 
der-in-chief of the Achaeans. His nation was at that time 
involved in a war against the tyrant of Sparta, Machanidas, who 

* Aratus, in his memoirs, and after him, the historian Polybius (£. it, 
ch. 3), endeavored to justify this transaction on the plea of necessity; 
but it is severely, and, we think, justly reprehended by Plutarch, in hia 
life of Aratus. 



b. c. 206—183. ACHiEAN LEAGUE— PHILOPCEMEN. 259 

endeavored to make conquests in Peloponnesus, and had already 
advanced as far as Mantinea. Philopoemen w*ent to attack him 
near that place. The beginning of the battle was far from being 
favorable to him; on the contrary, his left wing, composed of 
mercenaries, was, after a sharp conflict, entirely broken and put 
to flight Still, the Achsean general did not, on this account, 
lose either his courage or his presence of mind ; he rather watched 
the more attentively the errors that the enemy might commit, in 
order to turn them, if possible, to his own advantage. One such 
error was committed, which is common on the like occasions. 

Machanidas, instead of attacking both on the front and flank 
the centre of the Achaeans, lost his time in pursuing the fugi- 
tives. Philopoemen instantly occupied the ground thus incau- 
tiously abandoned by the tyrant, and not only separated him from 
the main body of his troops, but^ven cut the latter in pieces, 
while they were hurrying to cross a ditch, in order to come to 
close fight with the Achsean phalanx. Machanidas at length 
returned from the pursuit; but it was too late. At the very 
instant when he was spurring his horse through the ditch to 
rejoin the remnants of his army, Philopoemen pierced him with 
a spear, and by this bold exploit completed and secured a victory, 
the fruit in every respect of his superior talents (b. c. 206). 

The battle of Mantinea was of immense advantage to the 
Achaaans ; besides enriching them with a large quantity of spoils 
and enlarging their territory, it saved their nation from the yoke 
of the Spartan despot. Hence, the same honor which had been 
paid to Themistocles after the battle of Salamis, was now paid to 
Philopoemen after his victory at Mantinea. It is related that, 
when he appeared at the Nemcean games, just as Pylades, the 
musician, was singing this verse of an ancient poet : 

The palm of liberty for Greece I won, 

The people, struck at the coincidence, from every part of the 
theatre turned their eyes upon Philopoemen, and welcomed him 
with the loudest plaudits. They recollected the ancient dignity 
of Greece, and in their present joy seemed filled with the noble 
spirit of former times. 

Such also was the confidence which the Achasan troops placed 
in Philopoemen, that, in great emergencies, they were discontented 
under any other commander : they longed for the return of their 
favorite general ; and if he but made his appearance, they were 
soon satisfied and again ready for action. 

He had, indeed, several other occasions to try their courage in 
the field. The death of Machanidas, instead of restoring to the 



260 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part V, 

Spartans the enjoyment of their ancient liberty, had served only 
to make room for another and still more odious tyrant in the per- 
son of Nabis. This man, having inherited the hostile feelings of 
his predecessors towards the Achseans, waged an obstinate war 
against them. He at first obtained a partial success, but was sub 
sequently so often and so signally defeated by Philopoemen, that 
he lost nearly all his troops and resources ; till, at length, he him- 
self fell by the sword of deceitful allies, after a detestable reign of 
fifteen years (b. c. 191). Philopoemen was no sooner informed of 
"this event, than he marched with his army to Sparta, where he 
found all things in great confusion. Having assembled the chief 
citizens, he so dexterously influenced them by motives of persua- 
sion and of fear, that he persuaded them, and, through them, the 
whole city, to join in the Achaean league. 

This important operation added new lustre to the reputation 
of Philopoemen. The Lacedaemonians themselves, out of grati- 
tude for him, resolved to make him a present of the whole sum 
accruing from the sale of Nabis' s property ; a sum amounting to 
one hundred and twenty talents, or upwards of one hundred and 
twenty thousand dollars. But so well known was the integrity 
of Philopoemen, that not one of the Spartans could be induced to 
be the bearer of the present; it became necessary to intrust it to 
one Timolaus, a stranger, to whom Philopoemen was bound by the 
rights of hospitality. 

Timolaus therefore went to Megalopolis, and took lodging with 
Philopoemen, who gave him a kind reception. Here, having ob- 
served the virtue of this great man, the simplicity of his diet, 
the gravity of his discourse, and the nobleness of his sentiments, 
he did not dare even mention the object of his journey, and, 
having assigned another motive for it, returned to Lacedsemon. 
Nor was he more successful in a second visit. Being sent a third 
time, he at last ventured to speak, and delivered his commission. 
Philopoemen listened to him with marks of great satisfaction, but 
immediately set out for Sparta, where, having expressed his grati- 
tude to the citizens for their benevolence, he exhorted them not to 
endeavor to bribe with money those who, for the sake of virtue, 
were already their friends; but rather to employ their gold in pur- 
chasing the wicked, and those persons who, in council, perplexed 
and divided the city by seditious discourses; so that, being paid 
for their silence, they might no longer occasion disturbances in the 
government. 

Such was the disinterestedness and magnanimity of Philopoemen. 
These, with other great qualities and noble deeds, rendered him 
equal to the illustrious heroes of earlier times, Cimon, Aristides 



b. c. 317—289. CARTHAGE AND SICILY. 261 

Epaminondas, etc.; hence he was deservedly called the last of the 
Greeks, since after him Greece produced no great men worthy of 
her ancient glory. At the age of seventy years, and after fighting 
in a private encounter with his usual courage, he was, in conse- 
quence of a fall from his horse, made prisoner by a Messenian 
party, who had the base cruelty to deprive him of life by poison 
(b. c. 183). The Achseans, in order to avenge the loss of their 
general, waged a terrible war against the Messenian s, and, punish- 
ing with inexorable severity all those who had a part in the 
death of Philopcemen, performed in his honor magnificent obse- 
quies, which resembled a triumph rather than a funeral. 

AFFAIRS OF CARTHAGE AND SICILY.— AGATHOCLES, 
TYRANT OF SYRACUSE.— b. c. 317— 289. 

We have thus far conducted the history of Greece and of the 
neighboring states, through an unbroken chain of events. The 
history of the western world, during the same period of time, 
must now engage our attention, till, by the progress of the 
Romans in all directions, the same narrative will be made to com- 
prehend all the countries of the earth known to the ancients. 

On a former occasion it was remarked that, after the Carthagi- 
nians first obtained a footing in Sicily, they never ceased to make 
vigorous efforts both to preserve and to extend their conquests. 
Their late defeat by the Syraeusans under Timoleon did not 
prevent them from soon renewing their attempts, and the strug- 
gle was now carried on between them and the famous tyrant 
Agathocles. 

This man was a Sicilian by birth, of low extraction, but remarka- 
ble for natural talents, and still more so for his ambitious and fierce 
disposition. With the assistance of the Carthaginians, he usurped 
the sovereign authority in Syracuse twenty years after the death 
of Timoleon, and exercised it in the most tyrannical manner, as 
well in Syracuse itself as in other cities, which he took either by 
force or surprise. The Carthaginians then thought of putting a 
check on his ambition, and their commander Amilcar made him 
agree to a treaty calculated to maintain peace; but Agathocles 
did not long comply with it, on the contrary he rose against his 
former benefactors. They, on their part, marched against him, 
and having chastised his ingratitude by a signal defeat, obliged 
him to shut himself up in Syracuse. They laid siege to that city 
with the more readiness, as the reduction of this important place 
might have easily rendered them masters of the whole island. 

Agathocles had comparatively few forces with which to oppose 



262 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part V. 

them; and his cruelty, besides, caused him to be deserted by his 
allies. To rescue himself from so terrible an extremity, he made 
a plan so very bold and so seemingly impracticable, that even at 
present it might appear incredible, were it not for the fact of its 
execution : unable as he was to resist the Carthaginians on his own 
territory, he had the audacity to sail for Africa, in order to attack 
them upon their own ground.* 

The perfect secrecy with which Agathocles conducted this enter- 
prise, was not less astonishing than the enterprise itself; nobody 
knew or suspected his design, till he reached the African shores. 
He announced it only after the army had landed, and represented 
to his followers that, in order to rescue their country from danger, 
his intent was to divert the enemy's attention from Syracuse by 
marching against Carthage, an opulent though ill-protected city, 
whose riches would be the reward of their courage. Finding the 
troops disposed to follow him, he executed a second project still 
bolder than the first, by burning his fleet, and thus leaving to his 
soldiers no alternative but victory or death (b. c. 310). 

Agathocles allowed no time for reflection and repentance; he re- 
solutely marched into the heart of 'the enemy's country, subduing 
cities, and enriching his soldiers with their spoils. The Cartha- 
ginians began to be the more alarmed, as this invasion led them to 
suppose that their forces had been conquered and destroyed in 
Sicily. New armies, it is true, were mustered in great haste, 
to hinder the approach of the enemy; but they were repeatedly 
defeated, and, as a natural consequence, their defeat increased 
more and more the general consternation, even so far as to occa- 
sion great disturbances in their city. 

Very happily for them, when Agathocles saw his affairs in this 
prosperous condition, he determined to revisit Sicily. His ab- 
sence, though it lasted but a short time, caused a complete change 
in the prospect of the war, and when he returned to Africa, he 
could not succeed in regaining his former superiority : in this 
critical situation, the tyrant sought a means of preservation for 
himself; he abandoned his army, and recrossing the sea with a 
few persons, again returned to Syracuse. The soldiers, enraged 
at this base conduct, vented their vengeance on his two sons; 
•they killed both of them, and surrendered themselves to the 
enemy. Some years after, Agathocles himself closed his criminal 
life by a violent and frightful death (b. c. 289). 

* "Mini prorsus audacid," says Justin, " ut quibus in solo urbis 
suso par non erat, eorum urbi bellum inferret, et qui sua tueri non po- 
terat, impugnaret aliena, victusque victoribus insultaret." — Justin, b. 
xxii, ch. 4. 



b. c. 343 -282. ROMANS AND SAMNITES. 2G3 

Tins tyrant, however, must be allowed to have possessed one 
good quality, that of modesty in his private conduct. Being the 
son of a potter, he not only betrayed no shame of his lowly 
origin, but purposely made use of earthen vessels at table, in order 
to perpetuate the recollection of his former humble condition. 

WAR OF THE ROMANS AGAINST THE SAMNITES. b. c. 343—282. 

During the disputes between Carthage and Sicily, the Ro- 
mans continued to lay the solid and durable foundation of their 
future greatness. The history of that singular natron, particu- 
larly at the period which we have now reached, presents an al- 
most uninterrupted series of exploits, battles, and conquests 
achieved in spite of a thousand difficulties, not less by their un- 
flinching perseverance than by their heroic valor. This appeared 
in the most striking manner in their war against the Samnites, 
a powerful tribe of Southern Italy. The Samnites yielded not 
to the Romans themselves in martial spirit, intrepidity, and dis- 
cipline : often vanquished, sometimes victorious, they maintained 
the bloody contest with incredible courage and obstinacy for the 
space of about sixty years. 

This protracted struggle may be considered under three dis- 
tinct heads, according to the various stages of its duration and 
the characteristic events by which every one of them was marked. 

§1.. SAMNITE WAR.— ITS BEGINNING AND FIRST RESULT. 
b. c. 343—321. 

Under the consulate of Valerius Corvus and Cornelius Cossus, 
the Romans and Samnites, hitherto allies and friends, became 
enemies on account of an intermediate nation, the Campanians, 
attacked at that time by the Samnites, and defended by the Ro- 
mans. The senate of the republic sent heralds to demand satisfac- 
tion of the invaders, for their attempt upon a people then placed 
under the Roman protection. On their refusal, war was declared, 
and both consuls received orders to set out instantly at the head of 
their troops against this new enemy; Valerius led his army into 
Campania, and Cornelius marched to the Samnite teritory. 

Valerius was soon obliged to come to a battle. He readily 
prepared for it, and by words full of energy and strongly expres- 
sive of his well-known affection for the troops and his confidence 
in their valor, filled them all with the determination to maintain, 
in the approaching conflict, the glory of the Roman name. 
The Samnites, likewise, were proud of their recent exploits and 



264 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part V 

ancient renown. Never did foe meet foe on more equal terms, 
with more similar hopes, and with greater confidence in their own V 
courage, and respect for their opponents.* The action lasted long, 
without any sign of victory on either side. The day was drawing 
to its close, and several ranks of the Samnites were already 
destroyed ; yet, so fully resolved were they to conquer or die, 
that none of the survivors were seen to abandon their post, and 
withdraw from that scene of carnage. The Romans themselves 
began to be exhausted ; still, excited by the example of their 
general who performed prodigies of valor, and maddened, as it 
were, by the undaunted resistance of their opponents, they made 
so furious an attack, that the Samnites at last began to give way, 
and were at length driven from the field. The conquerors took 
many of them prisoners, slew many others, and very few would 
have escaped, if night had not put an end to the pursuit. 

The joy occasioned by this important success of Valerius, was 
soon damped by the peril of his colleague and of the other Roman 
army. The Consul Cornelius had incautiously marched his 
troops into a deep valley, without noticing that the surrounding 
hills were occupied by the Samnites, and he became sensible of 
his danger only when it was too late to avoid it. Fortunately, 
however, the enemy had neglected to take possession of one 
eminence more elevated than all the rest ; the consul's attention was 
directed to it by P. Decius, one of his chief officers. As this 
height, though almost inaccessible to heavy armed soldiers, could 
easily be reached by light armed infantry, Decius asked no more 
than a body of two thousand and four hundred men, to take 
possession of so favorable a spot, and thus save the whole Roman 
army. When he would be once stationed on the eminence, the 
consul, with all his troops, could leave the defile without danger 
of an attack, because the Samnites would naturally be afraid of 
being themselves attacked, with immense disadvantage, by the 
detachment from the height. 

This salutary advice was highly applauded and eagerly fol- 
lowed. Decius, with the body of troops which he had desired, 
went through a forest towards the intended spot, and was not 
perceived by the enemy till he had reached the summit. While 
the Samnites, in surprise and dismay, and not knowing what 
step to take, made different movements to no purpose, the consul 
had time to extricate his legions from danger and to occupy a 
safer position. When night came on and the Samnites were at 

* Prceliuni, ut quod maxirne unquani, pari spe, utrinque Eequis viri- 
Tbus, cum ficlucia sui siue contemptu hostium, commissuui est. — Livy, b. 
vii. c. 33. 



B. c. 343—282. ROMANS AND SAMNITES. 265 

rest Decius and his brave companions left the height, and cros- 
sing the enemy's camp with equal celerity and courage early in 
the°morning rejoined their own army, which welcomed them with 
every expression of gratitude for their devotedness, and joy tor 

1 TlJco^sul, having assembled his legions, began to lavish mer- 
ited praises on Decius ; yet, at the suggestion of this brave officer 
himself, he dismissed the assembly for the sake of a more urgent 
affair. Decius advised him to go instantly at the head of the troops 
and attack the Samnites, before they could have recovered irom 
their amazement, and whilst they would still be scattered about 
the neighborhood. Whatever he proposed was executed. In© 
Samnites, thus suddenly attacked, offered but a feeble resistance : 
some escaped by flight ; others, who had hoped to find a shelter 
within their camp, were pursued thereby the victorious Romans, 
and all, to the number of thirty thousand, were put to the sword. 
After this great achievement, the consul again assembled his 
troops, and not only began to harangue them as before in com- 
mendation of Decius, but bestowed on him additional praises tor 
the late signal service which he had rendered to the republic^ 
Besides other military rewards, he presented him with a crown ot 
gold The legions likewise, to testify their gratitude to Decius, 
honored him with a crown made of grass, such as was given to 
those who had delivered the Romans or their allies from a siege. • 

* This crown was for that reason called Corona Obsidionalis, a very 
appropriate name, as it was composed of grass that grew m the place 
just besieged, and related to the siege of that place or city _ ^ 

The other coronets bestowed as military rewards among the Romans, 

^Corona S^ven to any soldier who had saved the life of a Roman 
citizen in an engagement. This crown, though composed of only oaken 
materials, was considered the most honorable that could be bestowed. 

Corona Muralis, awarded to him who first scaled the walls of a city 
in a general assault; and therefore in its form there was some allusion 
made to the figure of a wall. 

Corona Vallaris or Castrensu, the reward of him, who, first of all, had 
forced the enemy's intrenchments. 

Corona Navalis, set round with figures of the beaks of ships, and 
bestowed on such as had signalized their valor in a naval engagement. 
In fine Corona Triumphalis, made with wreaths of laurel, and awar- 
ded to the general who had gained a signal victory. To him also, was 
reserved the triumph, or solemn entry into Rome in a chariot magnifi- 
cently ornamented, and at the head of his victorious army 

There were other rewards for occasions different from those already 
mentioned. Among others, were the torques, a golden or silver collar, 
exquisitely wrought ; and the armWa, a sort of bracelets given, on 
account of some eminent service, to such only as were born Ronmns 

23 



266 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part IV. 

Another battle was fought near Suessula between Valerius, the 
other consul, and the Samnites. The latter had summoned all 
the flower of their youth under their standards, to try again the 
chance of war; but the excessive confidence of that people in 
their number and bravery, their want of sufficient precautions, 
and the skilful movements of Valerius, secured to this general a 
second victory as complete as the first. No fewer than forty 
thousand bucklers and one hundred and seventy military stan- 
dards were taken from the Samnites. Their camp likewise was 
captured at the first onset, and all the booty and spoils found in 
it were divided among the Roman* soldiers. 

The fame of this expedition was not confined to Italy. It 
spread abroad even to Africa, and the Carthaginians sent ambas- 
sadors to congratulate the Roman people on their success, with a 
golden crown of twenty-five pounds weight to be dedicated in the 
temple of Jupiter Capitolinus. A triumph was decreed to both 
consuls. In the triumphal march, Decius walked after them in 
great pomp, adorned with the crowns which he had received, and 
sharing in the honors and praises conferred on the two victorious 
generals. The Samnites, on the contrary, dispirited by their 
losses and the additional devastation of their territory, sent depu- 
ties to sue for peace : it was granted to them without much diffi- 
culty and on moderate terms, under the consulship of iEmilius 
Mamercinus. 

|IL SAMNITE WAR— ITS RENEWAL AND PROGRESS. 
b. c. 324—290. 

The late treaty between the two nations lasted for about fifteen 
years. During that interval, the Romans made so steady apro- 
gress in consequence of their prosperous wars against other foes, 
that the Samnites were alarmed at this continual increase of 
power, and began to make preparations for the renewal of hos- 
tilities. This was the most bloody and protracted part of their 
obstinate struggle. At Rome, it was thought from the beginning 
that the emergency required the appointment of a dictator, and 
L. Papirius Cursor was chosen for this high office ; the charge of 
master of the horse was given to Fabius Maximus Rullianus. 
Both of them, by their eminent talents and important services, 
deserved to be numbered among the greatest generals of ancient 
Rome ; but their discord at first threatened the state with 
serious evils. 

Papirius, having occasion to leave the army for a few days, 
strictly forbade the general of the cavalry to undertake any thing 
and engage in any combat during his absence. His orders were 



B. c. 343—282. ROMANS AND SAMNITES. 267 

not obeyed. Fabius, seeing a favorable opportunity to attack the 
Samnites, led the army against them, and gave them such an 
overthrow, that they left twenty thousand of their men on the 
field of battle. When the news of this action reached the dicta- 
tor's ears, instead of being rejoiced at the victory, he was highly 
incensed at the disobedience of Fabius : with all possible haste, 
he set out for the camp, asserting everywhere that the victory 
gained by Fabius was not more destructive to the Samnites, than 
it would prove fatal to discipline and to the majesty of the dic- 
tatorship, if this contempt of authority would remain unpunished. 

Fabius, aware of the danger that threatened him, invoked the 
protection of the soldiers against the severity of his general. 
Having found a refuge in their ranks as long as the day lasted, 
he fled during the night to Rome, where on the next day Papi- 
rius followed him, in order to bring him to trial. The cause was 
warmly, though vainly debated, first in the senate, and then in 
the assembly of the people, Papirius dwelling strongly on the 
necessity of exemplary chastisement for the vindication of public 
authority, and Rullianus pleading his services. At last, the peo- 
ple with unanimous consent, the tribunes, Rullianus himself and 
his aged father, M. Fabius, putting an end to the debate, humbly 
besought the dictator to forgive a transient act of disobedience. 
Papirius, moved by this spectacle, resisted no longer. He granted 
the pardon so much desired, saying that he was now fully satis- 
fied, since military discipline and the majesty of the empire had 
prevailed, after they were both in danger of being overthrown 
for ever. 

This noble and merciful act of Papirius, although universally 
applauded at Rome, did not restore to him the affection of the 
troops. They had been exasperated at his first rigor in the case 
of Fabius, and were by no means pleased at his return among 
them. This became evident on the very next day, when the 
Samnites, by their approach to the Roman camp, gave a new 
occasion to fight them with immense advantage; such was the 
ability of the dictator and the skill with which he drew up his 
legions for battle, that, if he had been seconded by the usual dis- 
play of their valor, no person doubts but that the enemy might 
that day have been totally subdued. But the Roman soldiers, 
not to increase the glory of their general, chose to fight with 
remissness, and without suffering themselves to be vanquished, 
would not become victorious. 

Papirius easily understood the cause of his failure in obtaining 
full success. Being made sensible that he ought to moderate his 
temper and blend mildness with severity, ho took with him his 



268 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part V. 

lieutenants, and, going about through the camp, visited all the 
wounded, asked how they were, and earnestly recommended them 
to the care of their officers. These obliging manners, always 
popular in themselves, made then so favorable an impression, that 
the dictator fully regained the affection of his troops ; as soon as 
they were sufficiently recovered and fit for action, he again led 
them against the enemy with full confidence of victory. His 
hope was realized, and the Samnites were so completely routed, 
that they no longer dared to meet the dictator in the field. 

The condition of the war was very different under two of his 
successors in command. The imprudence of Veturius and Post- 
humius, both consuls in the year b. c. 821, brought upon the 
Roman arms the most signal disgrace that they had yet encoun- 
tered. Pontius, the general of the Samnites, succeeded by 
stratagem in enclosing, near the small village of Caudium, the 
consular legions in a defile out of which there was no escape. 
When the Romans found themselves hemmed in on all sides, they 
fell into the utmost dejection; motionless with terror and grief, 
they looked sadly at each other, and gave vent to complaints and 
murmurs against the temerity of their generals. They thus spent 
the night without either food or rest. 

The Samnites themselves were at a loss how to make use of 
their advantage. They consulted on the subject their general's 
father, Herennius, a man of consummate prudence and judgment ; 
Herennius answered that they ought either to set the Romans 
free and dismiss them honorably, in order to gain their friendship, 
or put them all to the sword, in order to cripple, by a decisive 
blow, the power of Rome. The victorious Samnites followed 
neither advice. They preferred a middle course, less calculated, 
as Herennius justly observed, to weaken than to exasperate a 
vanquished enemy, and like a half-remedy in a violent crisis, 
very apt to turn in the end to their own ruin. Life was granted 
to the Romans on these conditions : that they should lay aside 
their arms and a portion of their garments, and in this state, with 
the consuls at their head, should all pass under the yoke ; se- 
condly, that the two nations, putting an end to the war, should 
live henceforth on a footing of equality. 

Since there was no resource left, these disgraceful terms were 
accepted. The dreaded ceremony of the yoke took place in pre- 
sence of the armed battalions of the Samnites, who were both 
ungenerous and imprudent enough to accompany it with bitter 
sarcasms and many acts of brutal violence. The Romans went 
out of the defile, covered with shame and overwhelmed with 
grief; the light of day seemed to them more intolerable than 



b. c. 343—282. ROMANS AND SAMNITES. 269 

death. They silently marched towards Rome, and, entering it 
late at night, hastened to conceal themselves in their houses. 

The Roman people and senate did not believe themselves bound 
by the treaty of Caudium, as being an unauthorized agreement, 
concluded by their consuls and troops without their own consent. 
They appointed new and more skilful generals j they reorganized 
the vanquished legions, and sent them against the Samnites. As 
soon as the Roman soldiers perceived the enemy, they did not 
wait for either exhortation or signal, but running, sword in hand, 
with inexpressible fury, they slew or drove every foe before them, 
and taking the Samnite camp, filled it in a moment with dread 
and carnage. Shortly after, they defeated another army, nearly 
in the same manner and in the same circumstances. Besides 
their advantages in the field, the conquerors recovered all their 
colors, their stands of arms, and their hostages; and obliged seven 
thousand prisoners, together, as some believe, with the famous 
general Pontius, to pass under the yoke, and thus undergo the 
same ignominious treatment which the Romans themselves had 
been doomed to suffer at Caudium. 

These disastrous events did not put an end to hostilities. Each 
nation seemed to have sworn the extermination of the other; for 
a long period of time (b. c. 320 — 290), almost every year was 
marked by bloody battles, and almost every battle was a new 
wound inflicted on the power of the Samnites. This undaunted 
people were, it is true, occasionally successful in their efforts ; 
but even success was fatal to them, because, by reanimating their 
hopes, it roused them to new exertions which invariably ended 
in new losses and defeats. In vain did they recruit their armies 
with unabated energy; in vain too did they seek and find assist- 
ance in the powerful tribes of central and northern Italy, the 
Marsi, the Umbrians, the Etrurians, the Gauls situated near the 
river Po, etc. Whether they fought alone, or jointly with their 
allies, they experienced the most signal overthrows from those 
great generals of Rome, Papirius, Fabius, and others, and on seve- 
ral occasions lost from twenty to forty thousand men; the 
Etrurians, indeed, lost in one engagement sixty thousand slain or 
prisoners. In a word, it is no exaggeration to say that there never 
was seen a greater and more continued success on one side, nor a 
more protracted and obstinate resistance on the other. 

I III. THE SAMNITE WAR.— ITS CLOSE.— b. c. 290—282. 

The Samnites at length became sensible of their own weakness 
and the complete failure of their resources. The loss of their 

2Z* 



270 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part V, 

armies, population, cities and territory, if it did not extinguish 
their martial spirit and abate their courage, at least undermined 
and exhausted their strength. In the year B. c. 290, the two 
consuls, Cornelius Rufinus and Curius Dentatus, having led their 
legions into the Samnite country, gained so many advantages 
over the inhabitants, as to compel them to sue for peace. The 
Roman senate were willing to grant it, but left the articles of 
treaty to be settled by Curius. The deputies of the Samnites 
found him sitting near the fire in his modest farm-house, whither 
he had retired for a time, and taking a frugal meal served up in 
a wooden dish. Having first explained the object of their em- 
bassy, they offered him a large sum of money, to render him more 
favorable to their interests ; he graciously listened to them, but 
constantly rejected the proffered gift, saying that he had found 
it far more honorable to command those who had gold, than to 
have any himself. After the ratification of the treaty, this great 
man returned to Rome, where he enjoyed triumphal honors. 

By an unprecedented example in the history of the republic, 
another triumph was decreed in the same year to Curius, for 
having subdued the whole country of the Sabines, and carried 
his victorious arms to the Adriatic sea. In giving an account of 
this expedition to the senate, he made use of these remarkable 
words : " I have conquered so much land, that it must have 
remained uncultivated, had I not also taken so great a number of 
prisoners ; and I have taken so many prisoners, that they would 
die of starvation, had I not conquered so much land." As to 
Curius himself, so illustrious a personage and one of the bright- 
est ornaments of his age and nation, seven acres of land com- 
posed the whole of his property. 

To return to the Samnites ; their treaty with Curius was or 
seemed to be the close of their bloody strife against Rome. That 
strife had given to the Romans more trouble, perhaps, than all 
the other Italian wars together, though in the end they obtained 
a complete and lasting success. When, a few years later, the 
Samnites endeavored to reassert their independence, a new and 
signal defeat, which cost their nation twenty-five thousand men, 
taught them to respect in future the superiority of Rome. They 
at last submitted to their conquerors; and their example was 
imitated by most of those Italian states formerly involved in their 
quarrel, and at that time subdued like themselves by the exertions 
of Roman valor. 

These events lead us to the year b. c. about 282. The Ro- 
mans had scarcely brought so many contests to a successful 
close, when another struggle called for their attention, and served 
to increase their progress in military science and discipline. 



b. c. 281—272. PYRRHUS AND THE ROMANS. 271 

WAR OF THE ROMANS AGAINST PYRRHUS.— ADVENTURES 
AND DEATH OF THAT PRINCE.— b. c. 281—272. 

Tins war originated in a series of gross insults offered to Roman 
ambassadors by the inhabitants of Tarentum. Rome openly 
declared vengeance against this arrogant city. The Tarentines 
seeing the storm ready to burst upon them, and conscious of their 
utter inability to face it by themselves, called to their assistance 
Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, a prince not less remarkable for his 
courage and skill in war, than for his reckless ambition which 
continually prompted him to go from country to country in search 
of military adventures. He readily acceded to the request of 
the Tarentines, and crossing the Adriatic sea with an army of 
about thirty thousand men, passed over to Italy (b. c. 281). 
Before commencing hostilities, he offered his mediation to adjust 
the existing differences between Rome and Tarentum ; the consul 
Lcevinus, who had already approached with his legions, answered 
him that the Romans neither took Pyrrhus for an arbiter of their 
claims, nor feared him as an enemy. 

Upon this reply, the king advanced against the Romans. It 
is said that when he beheld from a distance their excellent order 
and disposition, he was surprised, and began to entertain some 
uneasiness about the result of the war. But now he had no time 
for deliberation j the Romans crossed the river Siris, which sepa- 
rated them from his army, and a battle immediately ensued. It 
was a sharp and bloody conflict. Pyrrhus himself, whilst per- 
forming the duties of both a general and soldier, ran great risk of 
his life, and, if he at length gained the victory, he was indebted 
for it principally to his elephants, whose enormous bulk and size 
affrighted the Romans, unaccustomed to see such huge animals. 
This success, moreover, was purchased at a very dear rate ; it cost 
him a great number of his choicest men ; hence, on his return 
to Tarentum, when congratulated on his victory, he said : " If we 
gain such another victory, we are undone. " A second battle, 
equally obstinate and terrible, increased his fears as to the ulti- 
mate consequences of the war, and a variety of other incidents 
contributed to render him more and more apprehensive of the 
result. 

An embassy had been sent to Pyrrhus from Rome, for the pur- 
pose of coming to an agreement with him about the ransom or the 
exchange of prisoners : the conduct of the ambassadors, and espe- 
cially of C. Fabricius, the most illustrious of them, gave the king 



272 ANCIENT HISTORY. Tart V. 

a most exalted idea of Roman disinterestedness and magnanimitj. 
— This Caius Fabricius was highly esteemed by the Romans 
for his probity, his wisdom, and his martial abilities ; but he 
was extremely poor. Pyrrhus received him with particular 
distinction, and privately offered him gold, which he begged 
him to accept, not for any base purpose, but as a pledge of friend- 
ship and hospitality. As Fabricius positively refused to receive 
any present, however valuable and useful it might be, Pja-rhus 
urged him no farther; but the next day, wishing to surprise him, 
and knowing that he had never seen an elephant, he ordered the 
largest one in his possession to be caparisoned and placed behind 
a curtain in the room in which they were to meet. This being 
done, the curtain was suddenly drawn at the king's command, 
and the elephant raising his trunk over the head of Fabricius, 
made a horrid and frightful noise. But Fabricius turned about 
very calmly, and said with a smile : " Your gold did not tempt 
me yesterday, nor has your beast affrighted me to-day." 

After this, Fabricius being consul, an unknown person came 
to his camp with a letter from the king's physician, who offered 
to take off Pyrrhus by poison, and so end the war without any 
farther hazard to the Romans, provided they would give him a 
proper compensation for his services. Fabricius detested this 
perfidy, and having brought his colleague into the same senti- 
ments, sent despatches to the king, without losing a moment's 
time, to caution him against the treason. It is said that, when 
Pyrrhus read the letter, he exclaimed : "It would be easier to 
turn the sun out of his stated course, than to divert Fabricius 
from the paths of justice and probity ;" and that he might not 
seem to be surpassed in generosity, he immediately dismissed all 
the Roman prisoners without ransom. Still he desired more than 
ever to conclude an honorable peace. Seeing that the Romans 
made no advance towards a treaty of this kind, he was the first 
to propose and urge it himself. But the senate, faithful to their 
maxim never to yield any thing in time of adversity or danger, 
repeatedly answered Pyrrhus that he never would obtain peace 
from the Romans, till he should have evacuated Italy. 

These were not ostentatious or idle words. The king knew 
very well that, among the Romans, vigorous action ever went 
hand in hand with firmness of language. He had noticed that 
they recruited their legions with the greatest facility, and not- 
withstanding their losses, opposed to him armies more numerous 
than the preceding; so that it seemed as if he had to do with the 
Lernaean hydra. He had likewise observed, when viewing the 
dead bodies lying on the field after his first battle, that all the 



B. c. 281—272. PYRRHUS AND THE ROMANS. 273 

Romans bad died of honorable wounds, and witb their faces to- 
wards the enemy. This circumstance, whilst it elicited from him 
a desire to have soldiers like these, plainly told him how hardy a 
kind of warriors they were, against whom he had undertaken to 
contend. 

These considerations threw Pyrrhus into great perplexity as to 
bis future course. He was relieved from his uneasiness by a 
deputation of Sicilians, entreating him to espouse their cause 
against the Carthaginians their enemies, and offering to put Syra- 
cuse, Agrigentum, and the city of the Leontines in his hands. 
He acceded to their proposal, and setting sail for Sicily, occupied 
the towns just mentioned, drove the Carthaginians before him, 
and in a short time, stripped them of whatever they possessed in 
that island, except the strong city of Lilybaeum. But, as was 
usual with him, he lost his conquests as quickly as he had 
achieved them ; nor could he succeed, without much difficulty 
and danger, in recrossing the strait to rejoin his Italian allies. 

During his absence, the Romans had made considerable pro- 
gress. Pyrrhus, in order to restore his forlorn affairs, determined 
to try again the chance of a battle. He lost it, and together with 
it twenty-six thousand men, besides prisoners ; the king himself 
escaped with a small body of cavalry to Tarentum, whence he 
shortly after re-embarked for his own country (b. c. 275). 

Thus were the lofty hopes of Pyrrhus respecting Italy and 
Sicily frustrated, after he had wasted six years in these expedi- 
tions. But, although he was not successful, still he preserved 
his unconquerable courage, and was reputed to excel, in military 
experience and personal prowess, all the princes of his time. 
"Unfortunately for him, what he gained by his achievements, he 
lost by vain hopes, his desire of something absent never suffering 
him effectually to persevere in a present pursuit. 

The close of his public life was in keeping with the rest of his 
career. Having failed in an attempt upon Sparta, he turned his 
efforts against the city of Argos, and succeeded in entering it 
and filling some streets with his troops, tlTtmgh with great dan- 
ger to them and at the cost of his own life. He first received a, 
wound, and as he was rushing with all his force to charge his 
aggressor, the mother of this man, who witnessed the fight from 
the roof of a house and trembled for her son, threw a large tile 
with such violence on the head of the king, that he fell senseless, 
and a soldier cut off his head (b. C. 272). Such was the end of 
Pyrrhus, an end little worthy of his high rank as a prince and a 
general, but not unworthy of his adventurous life. 

The Romans, by their final triumph over Pyrrhus, and the 



274 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part V. 

subsequent surrender of Tarentum into their hands, became mas- 
ters of all central and southern Italy. The foundation of their 
empire had been laid slowly, but surely, by a continual warfare 
of nearly five hundred years; having now no longer any thing to 
fear either for their safety or their pre-eminence in the peninsula, 
they began to think of carrying their arms into foreign countries. 

FIRST PUNIC WAR,— b. c. 2G4— 241. 

Pyrrhus is reported to have said, in leaving Sicily, that this 
island would not fail to become a battle-field for the Romans 
and Carthaginians. His prediction was soon verified by the 
event. These two nations were now too near each other, and at 
the same time too powerful and ambitious, to remain idle spec- 
tators of their respective aggrandizement; notwithstanding their 
previous and reiterated treaties of alliance, it was plain that a 
clashing of interests would lead to an open rupture between them 
as soon as a specious occasion would offer. Such an occasion pre- 
sented itself in the affairs of the Mamertines or new inhabitants 
of Messina, formerly a band of adventurers, who were, on the 
one hand, attacked by the Carthaginians and by Hiero, king of 
Syracuse, and on the other, defended by the Romans whose as- 
sistance they had earnestly implored. The consul Appius, hav- 
ing crossed the strait of Sicily during the night, fell on the Syra- 
cusans and Carthaginians, defeated them successively in two great 
battles, and rescued Messina from danger (b. c. 26-1). 

The success of Appius was eagerly pursued in the ensuing year 
by the consuls Otacilius and Valerius. These victories of the Ro- 
mans at the very beginning of the war, and their steady progress 
in the island, made a deep impression on the mind of Hiero. 
That prince, already conspicuous for his wisdom in the govern- 
ment of his people, conjectured from the beginning what would 
be the final result of this contest ; and being, for several reasons, 
dissatisfied with his Carthaginian allies, offered his friendship to 
the Romans. It was readily accepted, and became for them a 
subject of constant satisfaction; for they never had a more faith- 
ful and useful ally. The first fruit of their treaty with him was 
the capture of Agrigentum, the most important place of Sicily 
except Syracuse, and the most considerable among the cities oc- 
cupied by the Carthaginians. 

So prosperous a beginning exceedingly raised the hopes of the 
Romans. They determined to create a naval force, in order to 
pursue their advantage with greater effect, and in every respect, 
by sea as well as by land, successfully to cope with their oppo- 
nents. A Carthaginian galley, stranded by some accident on the 



b. c. 264—241. FIRST PUNIC WAR. 275 

Italian coast, served them as a pattern. They set themselves to 
the work with so much ardor, that one hundred and twenty ves- 
sels were built within the short space of two months. But these 
vessels, on account of their hasty construction and for want of 
skilful workmen, being slow and heavy in their motions, it was 
resolved to make up for this deficiency by the use of certain ma- 
chines purposely invented for the occasion, and afterwards called 
Corvi or Crows, with which they might seize the enemy's ships, 
board them, and immediately come to close engagement. 

The Roman fleet thus equipped went, under the command of 
the consul Duilius, in search of the Carthaginians. It met them 
and their armament consisting of one hundred and thirty sail, 
near the coast of Mylae or Melazzo, in Sicily. At the approach 
of the Roman force, the Carthaginians, full of contempt for an 
enemy so inexperienced, as they thought, in the art of sea-war- 
fare, advanced in the expectation of an easy triumph, but they 
were soon undeceived ; their ships, suddenly seized by the ma- 
chines before mentioned, obliged them to come to closer fight, in 
which they were unable to stand the attack of the Romans. 
Their defeat was entire, and besides the loss of about fifty vessels, 
it cost them ten thousand men, either slain in the action or taken 
prisoners (b. c. 2G0). 

No victory was ever more gratifying to the Roman people. 
As Duilius was the first who had obtained for them such an ad- 
vantage at sea, peculiar honors were conferred upon him : first 
of all, he celebrated a naval triumph, and, as a memorial of his 
victory, a triumphal column of white marble, adorned with prows 
of ships, was erected in the forum by order of the senate. 

During the following years, great efforts were made and a de- 
sign was formed to carry the war into Africa; the Carthaginians, 
who feared nothing so much, made likewise stupendous prepara- 
tions to prevent the execution of such an attempt. This dispo- 
sition of the two parties led to a new engagement at sea, both 
terrible in itself and important in its consequences (b. c. 256). 

The Romans had appointed Manlius and Regulus consuls for 
this year. Their fleet amounted to three hundred and thirty 
ships, having on board one hundred and forty thousand men, 
averaging three hundred seamen and one hundred and twenty 
soldiers for each vessel. The Carthaginian fleet was still more 
numerous, consisting of three hundred and sixty vessels; and 
their forces, computed in the same proportion, must have amount- 
ed to upwards of one hundred and fifty thousand men. They 
were under the command of Amilcar and Hanno, the former with 
the title of general, and the latter with that of admiral. 



276 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part V. 

The two fleets came in sight near mount Ecnomus, at the 
mouth of the river Salsi in Sicily. In seeing these vast arma- 
ments, the most considerable that ever appeared at sea, preparing 
for battle and approaching each other, the spectator must have 
been amazed both at the importance of the contest, and at the 
power and strength of the two republics thus engaged. As there 
was no great inequality of forces, and nearly the same courage 
on both sides, the fight was obstinate and victory long remained 
doubtful. The Carthaginians at last were entirely overcome : 
sixty-four of their vessels were taken by the enemy, and upwards 
of thirty were sunk ; the Romans lost no more than twenty-four 
of their ships, nor did any of them fall into the hands of the 
Carthaginians.* 

The conquerors were enabled by this victory to make an im- 
mediate descent upon the coast of Africa. They had no sooner 
landed, than they laid siege to the city of Clypea, took it, and 
overrunning the whole neighboring district, carried off a consider- 
able booty, with more than twenty thousand prisoners. Manlius, 
one of the two consuls, was then recalled by the senate, and 
Regulus was left, with a portion of the fleet and army, to prose- 
cute the war in Africa. 

When this general advanced further into the hostile country, 
he was at first obliged to contend with an enemy of a very extra- 
ordinary kind. There was, near the river Bagrada, a serpent of 
prodigious size, whose skin, all covered with scales, no dart could 
penetrate. As several soldiers who went to the river were killed 
by this monster, it became necessary to attack it with the whole 
strength of the army and with every sort of machines, as though 
it had been a fortress. After many ineffectual discharges, a huge 
stone thrown by one of the engines at length broke the back-bone 
of the serpent, and left it stretched on the ground, where it was 
entirely, though not without great difficulty despatched by the 
soldiers. The skin, one hundred and twenty feet long, was sent 
to Rome, and hung up in one of the temples of the city. 

Regulus, having removed this obstacle, resumed the course of 
his military operations. He conquered a numerous army of 
Carthaginians which had attempted to stop his progress, and 
took, besides many other places, the important city of Tunis near 
Carthage. So rapid an advance spread the utmost terror among 
the inhabitants of this capital ; they sent deputies to the Roman 

* All the particulars of this battle may be seen in Polybius, b. i, c. 2, 
or Freinshemius, in his excellent supplement to Livy's History, b. xviii, 
n. 2—9. 



b. c. 264—241. FIRST TUNIC WAR. 277 

general, to conclude a treaty of peace ; but Regulus, dazzled by 
his success, would not grant it except under the most rigorous 
terms, and said that a nation ought to know either how to conquer 
or to submit to the conquerors. 

This haughty conduct so exasperated the Carthaginians, that 
they resolved to defend themselves to the last extremity. Having 
lately received among them Xantippus, a Lacedaemonian officer 
of great skill and experience, they placed him at the head of their 
troops. Under this new leader, affairs assumed a quite different 
aspect: after he had, for some time, carefully trained up the sol- 
diers in all the military exercises, he led them against the enemy, 
and offered battle to Regulus, who, although actually stationed 
in a very unfavorable position, did not decline the contest. The 
defeat of the Romans was complete; nearly all their army was 
destroyed, and live hundred men were taken prisoners, together 
with their general ^B. C. 255) : so true is it, as a judicious author 
remarks, that one prudent advice is better than a thousand wea- 
pons, and that nothing is more dangerous in life than presump- 
tuous confidence inspired by prosperity. 

The Carthaginians, after detaining Regulus a captive for some 
years, sent him to Home for the purpose of obtaining an exchange 
of prisoners. Before he set out, they made him promise under 
oath that he would return to Carthage, should their proposal 
happen to be rejected; this really happened, on the motion of 
Regulus himself, who proved in the senate that the exchange 
under consideration would be greatly disadvantageous to the 
republic. He therefore returned to his prison, aware indeed of 
the cruel treatment which awaited him there, but preferring, 
without hesitation, the fulfilment of his oath to the preservation 
of his life. He had no sooner arrived, than the Carthaginians, 
incensed against him, made him suffer every pain that their 
resentment could suggest, till he expired in the midst of tor- 
ments, having rendered himself greater by his constancy in suf- 
ferings, than lie was formerly by his splendid success. 

The late defeat of Regulus was not the only disaster suffered 
by the Romans at this period of the war. The land and the sea, 
the winds and the waves, now seemed to combine their efforts for 
the destruction of their vessels and troops. On one occasion, 
they lost, in consequence of a furious tempest, nearly three hun- 
dred ships of war which were wrecked along the Sicilian coast ; 
and on another, near the shores of Italy, upwards of a hundred 
and sixty ships, besides other vessels and transports. The Ro- 
mans were extremely afflicted at so many and so severe i 
and because all the elements seemed to oppose their superiority 



278 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part V. 

at sea, the senate resolved to reduce their naval force to the num- 
ber of sixty sail, intended merely to protect their coasts and 
preserve their communication with Sicily. Yet they did not long 
persevere in this determination. For they soon perceived that 
its execution would diminish their influence in that island, give 
great advantage to the enemy, and protract the war to no pur- 
pose. The former plan therefore was resumed ; and they began, 
with great energy, to equip a new fleet. 

During these preparations, Metellus, the commander of the 
Roman troops in Sicily, attacked the Carthaginians near Palermo 
with such skill and prudence as to gain a complete victory ; in 
this battle, twenty thousand Carthaginians were slain, and all 
their elephants, one hundred and twenty or forty in number, 
were taken (b. c. 250). So unexpected a result inspired the 
Romans with their former courage, and struck terror into the 
enemy. 

It was just the reverse in the ensuing year, when the presump- 
tion and rashness of the consul Claudius Pulcher brought destruc- 
tion on one of the most gallant armaments that the Romans ever 
put to sea. He had intended to surprise the enemy at Drepanum, 
a maritime town of Sicily, but was himself surprised, with his 
whole fleet, in a most unfavorable position : Adherbal, the Car-' 
thaginian commander, by his skilful movements and the masterly 
disposition of his ships, compelled the Romans to fight in a 
narrow place, so near the shore and so crowded together, that 
they could scarcely move. Besides all these disadvantages, they 
were likewise dispirited from a superstitious cause, because the 
consul not only was resolved to fight notwithstanding unfavorable 
auspices,* but even made a jest of them. For when the sacred 
chickens would not eat, he had ordered them to be thrown into the 
sea, " that they might drink/' The soldiers were disconcerted 
by this action, and imagining themselves to be under the dis- 
pleasure of their gods, did not act in the conflict with their usual 
intrepidity. 

tinder such circumstances as these, it must not appear sur- 
prising that the Romans, so often victorious before, suffered a 
dreadful defeat. The consul escaped with no more than thirty 
of his vessels, which he saved by sailing along the coast ; about 
ninety others, with all the seamen and soldiers on board, fell into 
the hands of the Carthaginians, whilst the remaining ships were 
wrecked upon the sands or dashed against the shore. 

* The ausjrices were a superstitious practice much in use among the 
ancient Romans, and consisted in searching after signs of the divine will 
and presages of futurity, in the flight of birds, or in their manner 
of eating. 



B.C. 264— 241.- FIRST PUNIC WAR. 279 

At the news of this overthrow, the Romans expressed their 
complaints against the consul Claudius, whoso rash imprudence 
had brought such heavy losses upon his country. Adhcrbal, on 
the contrary, received among the Carthaginians all the applause 
and honor due to his brave and skilful conduct. The battle of 
Drepanuin was indeed so much the more glorious to him, as he 
had, with only ninety vessels, engaged more than two hundred, 
and gained a signal victory without losing a single ship, or even 
one man, and having only a small number wounded j whereas 
the Romans had, it is said, eight thousand of their men killed, 
and twenty thousand taken prisoners. 

Thus two mighty nations were wasting their treasures, their 
strength and their blood in fighting each other. Yet, the great- 
ness of the losses suffered by each of them did not abate their 
ardor and courage; it merely induced them to confine their 
sphere of action within narrower limits, and, as it were, to con- 
centrate their efforts on a single point. The remainder of the 
war, during about ten years, seemed to have no other object than 
the city of Lilybamm, the most important and nearly the only 
one that the Carthaginians had hitherto preserved in Sicily. The 
attempt of the Romans upon this place might be well compared 
with the famous siege of Troy, not only for its duration, but also 
for the innumerable exploits performed on each side, either for 
the purpose of attack or defence. Nor was the siege of Lily- 
breum terminated by the capture of the city or the surrender of 
its inhabitants, but it continued till the war was brought by other 
means to a conclusion. On the one hand, every exertion that 
experience and skill, as well as boldness and intrepidity, could 
suggest, was used by the Carthaginian generals, Himilco, Car* 
thalo, and above all Amilcar, surnamed Barcas. On the other 
hand, the Romans displayed, in the midst of their continual dif- 
ficulties and dangers, a patience and firmness worthy of all praise; 
their constancy was at length crowned with entire success. 

They had, since the disastrous fight of Drepanum, abandoned 
again all attempts at sea, under the hope that their land armies 
would alone be able to decide the contest in their favor. Yet, 
when they found that all their expectations were likely to be 
frustrated by the vigorous and intrepid conduct of Amilcar, they 
resolved for the third time to make trial of a naval armament. 
The patriotism of private citizens made up for the deficiency of 
the public treasury, and their voluntary contributions enabled 
the state to equip a new fleet of two hundred galleys. "With this 
force, the consul Lutatius sailed for Sicily. Having met near 
the iEgates islands the Carthaginian fleet, still more numerous 



280 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part V. 

than his own, hut heavily laden and having none but new leviea 
on board, he attacked it, and gave it an entire overthrow. This 
defeat cost the enemy at least ten thousand men and one hun- 
dred and twenty vessels. As it fell on them at a time when they 
were already exhausted by so many efforts, it put an end to their 
resources, and though they wanted not courage, they had no 
longer money and troops to continue the war. 

In this extremity, the Carthaginians invested Amilcar with 
full powers to do whatever he thought advisable for the public 
good. This great man, after having achieved for the service of 
his country all that could be expected from consummate prudence 
and the most undaunted valor, at length yielded to the necessity 
of the times. He sent ambassadors to the Roman consul to treat 
of peace, and it was concluded under the following conditions : 
" That the Carthaginians should pay three thousand two hundred 
talents in the space of ten years; evacuate all Sicily; dismiss 
the Roman prisoners without ransom ; and wage no war against 
the allies of Rome." Such was the end of the first Punic war, 
after it had lasted twenty- three years without intermission 
(b. c. 241). 

If we take a general view of this long and bloody contest, it 
will justly appear to us that the mighty nations engaged in it 
were like two athletes full of vigor and strength, and equally ani- 
mated by the desire of victory, grasping and rudely handling 
each other, throwing each other to the ground, then rising again 
with redoubled energy, and using all the means of attack that 
force and art, courage and dexterity, can suggest ; until, thrown 
down a second time, and struggling long for the mastery, after this 
new and protracted effort one at last completely gets the better of 
his adversary, and compels him to ask for quarter and acknow- 
ledge his defeat. Such was the case with Rome and Carthage 
in the beginning, prosecution, and close of the first Punic war. 

There was on each side an equal desire of securing victory and 
final pre-eminence of power; both parties showed great energy, 
great courage, and real magnanimity in both the formation and 
execution of their plans. The Carthaginians surpassed the Ro- 
mans in the science of navigation, in the shape and swiftness of 
their vessel,?, the experience of their sailors and pilots, and their 
knowledge of the winds, bays, and coasts. The Romans had none 
of these advantages ; but courage, emulation, unabated firmness 
and a lively sense of national glory, made ample compensation 
for their want of skill and experience. Unaccustomed as they 
had hitherto been to a sea-warfare, they not only coped with the 
Carthaginians, the greatest maritime power then in existence, but 



s.c. 241.— 219. ROME AFTER THE FIRST PUNIC WAR. 281 

obtained over them a great number of naval victories. No dif- 
ficulty, no reverse was able to damp their spirit, not even the 
destruction of seven hundred of their gallies, which happened 
during that war whether in sea-fights, or in consequence of storms 
and shipwrecks, whilst those destroyed among the Carthaginians 
amounted only to five hundred; and this, above all, shows the 
constancy of the Roman people. They certainly would not have 
thought of making peace in the same circumstances in which 
Carthage asked for it ; the unexpected loss caused by the battle 
at the Agates islands at once blasted all the hopes and resources 
of the latter, whereas much severer losses had not dispirited the 
Romans. 

With regard to the soldiers employed in the first Punic war, 
the superiority of courage was undoubtedly on the side of Rome. 
Among the commanders, Amilcar, surnamed Barcas, was beyond 
comparison the most conspicuous for his bravery and prudence ; 
of all the Roman generals, none appeared very remarkable, nor 
endowed with talents calculated to ensure complete success : to 
the nature and strength of the national character and constitution 
was Rome indebted for her triumph over Carthage. 

ROME AFTER THE FIRST PUNIC WAR.— b. c. 211—210. 

By the late treaty of peace, all that part of Sicily not belonging 
to Hiero, king of Syracuse, passed under the power of the Ro- 
mans. They made it a province, the first they acquired out of 
Italy, to be governed by a prceton annually sent from Rome. 
Shortty after, upon a transient occasion or pretence of new broils 
with Carthage, they likewise subdued Sardinia to their laws; 
whilst in Italy itself, they completely defeated and reduced the 
rash and restless nation of the Falisci. 

Rome was then freed for a time from all foreign hostilities ; a 
circumstance which had not occurred during the space of four 
hundred and forty years. As a sign of general peace, the temple 
of Janus was shut for the second time* since the building of the 
city, the first time since the reign of Numa Pompilius (b. c. 235). 

Even this peace was of short duration. Besides other causes 
of dispute, the murder of a Roman ambassador, committed by 
the Illyrian court, drew the armies of Rome for the first time to 
those parts of Europe. The Illyrians were easily conquered, 
and some of them became subjects, others tributary, to the Ro- 
man government. 

A more difficult and considerable war which the republic had 
then to sustain, was that against the various inhabitants of the 

24* 



282 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part V. 

north of Italy, Gauls, Ligurians and others. It gave the Ro- 
maiis a favorable and effectual opportunity to extend their con- 
quests as far as the Alps, but obliged them to make several cam- 
paigns and fight many battles against these warlike nations. The 
greatest and most important of all the engagements that then 
took place, was the celebrated battle of Telamon, in which the 
Gauls, simultaneously attacked by two Roman armies, lost fifty 
thousand men, slain or prisoners (b. c. 225); this saved Rome 
and Italy from an invasion which might have proved as fatal as 
that of Brennus, one hundred and sixty -five years before. 

CARTHAGE AFTER THE FIRST PUNIC WAR— REVOLT OF THE 
MERCENARIES. 

After the Punic war had come to a close, both Rome and Car- 
thage were involved in disagreeable contests, and forced to em- 
ploy their arms in the suppression of domestic troubles. But 
there existed a great difference between the two nations. The 
Romans easily checked the insurrection of the Falisci; but the 
Carthaginians were engaged in a much more serious war against 
their mercenaries and the revolted Africans ; a war the progress 
of which filled them with the greatest alarm, and threatened 
even the entire subversion of their state. 

At Carthage, the public treasury had been exhausted both by 
the expenses of the late struggle against Rome, and the heavy 
sums required to be paid to the Romans. Still the mercenary 
troops employed by the Carthaginians, and then stationed near 
the city, were loudly demanding payment for their military ser- 
vices. When they found it postponed, and were even requested, 
on account of the actual depressed condition of the republic, to 
be satisfied with a part of their stipend, they at first loudly com- 
plained, then gave way to seditious cries, and finally took up 
arms to maintain their claim by force. 

The flame of insurrection, fanned by a few desperate individu- 
als, rapidly spread over every part of the country. All the 
cities of Africa, sooner or later, joined the party of the insur- 
gents ; and the number of their troops rose in a short time from 
twenty to seventy thousand. Never had Carthage been exposed 
to greater danger, even when attacked by Agathocles or Regulus ; 
the republic, just emerging from an unfortunate contest, was 
destitute of arms and troops, of the assistance of friends or 
allies, and of the necessary preparations to sustain a siege. Still, 
notwithstanding their distress and alarm, the Carthaginians did 
not yield to despair. They made extraordinary efforts for their 



CARTHAGE AFTER THE FIRST PUNIC WAR. 283 

defence, refitted their remaining vessels, levied new troops, and 
their energy hcing well seconded by one great man, at last suc- 
ceeded in removing the danger. 

This man was Amilcar Barcas, whose prowess has been already 
mentioned, and whose bravery, prudence and skill never were 
surpassed among the Carthaginians, except by his own son, the 
great Annibal. Being appointed commander of the army destined 
to fight the rebels, he acted with so much wisdom, that, although 
he at first declined a general engagement, yet he defeated a con- 
siderable portion of their army not far from Carthage, and 
drove them from nearly all the advantageous posts which they 
occupied. 

The arrival from Numidia of a young nobleman called Nara- 
vasus, who, through personal esteem for Amilcar, joined him 
with two thousand Numidians, was of great service to that gene- 
ral. Encouraged by this reinforcement, he made a sudden attack 
upon the enemy, killed ten thousand of their number, and took 
four thousand prisoners. Notwithstanding these losses, the 
army of the rebels still amounted to upwards of fifty thousand 
men. Their leaders kept them on the hills which intersected 
the country, watching thence all the motions of the Carthaginian 
general, and avoiding the plains through fear of his elephants 
and his superior cavalry. Amilcar, with still greater prudence, 
never exposed himself to any of their attacks, but cut off their 
stragglers and harassed them in a thousand ways. At last, he 
came upon them when they least expected him, and caught them, 
as it were, in a snare from which there was no escape. Not 
daring to venture a battle, and unable to effect their retreat, they 
endeavored to fortify their camp with ditches and intrenchments; 
but another and still more dangerous enemy, famine, soon re- 
duced them to the utmost distress. It became so terrible among 
them, that they began to feed upon one another; a just punish- 
ment, says Polybius, of the atrocities which they had committed 
during the war. While they were in this dreadful situation, 
Amilcar attacked them on all sides, and destroyed them to the 
number of more than forty thousand. 

The consequence of this great victory was the recovery of 
almost all the cities which had shaken off the yoke of Carthage ; 
such as dared to resist, like Hippo and Utica, were compelled to 
surrender at discretion. Another battle completely overthrew 
the rest of the insurgents, and so annihilated their party, that all 
Africa returned to its former allegiance. 

Before we proceed in our narrative, we will avail ourselves of 
the opportunity offered by the events that have just been described, 



284 ANCIENT HISTORY. Tart V. 

to give some idea of the character, manners, government, and re- 
ligion of the Carthaginians. 

MANNERS, GOVERNMENT, CHARACTER, AND RELIGION OF 
THE CARTHAGINIANS. 

The Carthaginians were indebted to the Tyrians, not only for 
their origin, but also for their manners, customs, laws, religion, 
and particularly for their constant success in commerce. Trade 
was, indeed, their chief occupation, the particular object of their 
thoughts, and the predominant feature of their character. Yet, 
they were not merely a trading nation ; they were likewise a pow- 
erful and warlike republic. If, on the one hand, commercial 
industry seemed the peculiar characteristic of the citizens of 
Carthage ; on the other, the necessity of defending their posses- 
sions, and a desire of extending their traffic, rendered them famous 
even as a conquering nation. 

The military power of the Carthaginians was upheld partly 
by troops raised among themselves, partly by their alliance with 
various princes, but chiefly by tributary tribes obliged to furnish 
a certain quota of money and troops, and by mercenary soldiers 
whose services they purchased from the neighboring states. They 
drew from Numidia a bold, impetuous and indefatigable cavalry, 
which constituted the principal strength of their armies ; from the 
Balearic isles, the most expert slingcrs in the world; from Spain, 
a well disciplined infantry ; from the coasts of Genoa and Gaul, 
troops of renowned valor ; and from Greece, soldiers trained to 
every species of warfare. 

The Carthaginians were thus enabled to send powerful armies 
into the field, and to subdue provinces and kingdoms without 
much trouble. But this advantage was counterbalanced by the 
inconveniences attached to such a system : hireling soldiers, like 
those just mentioned, had neither great attachment for their 
employers, nor a constant zeal for the prosperity of the state 
whose battles they were engaged to fight. Should they happen 
to withdraw in time of danger, or to revolt in time of peace, the 
Carthaginian republic, thus deprived of its chief supports, was 
shaken to its very foundation. This is what happened particu- 
larly in the defection of the mercenaries after the first Punic war. 

The government of Carthage, like that of Rome and Sparta, 
was composed of three different powers, which at the same time 
counterbalanced and assisted one another, namely, the senate, the 
people, and two supreme magistrates, called kings by some au- 
thors, and by others svjfetes or judges. The tribunal of the one 



MANNERS OF THE CARTHAGINIANS. 285 

hundred, which afterwards acquired a great influence m the 
republic, was of a more recent origin. 

The suffetes were annually elected, and their authority corre- 
sponded to that of the consuls at Rome. They were empowered 
to assemble the senate, to preside over it, and to propose the 
subjects of deliberation; they likewise had the principal share in 
the judgment of important cases as well as in the care of public 
revenues, and sometimes, as was the case with Annibal, were 
invested even with the command of armies. 

The senate was composed of persons venerable for their age, 
their experience, their standing in society, and, especially, their 
personal merit. They formed the council of state, and might be 
called the soul of public deliberations. In the senate, all affairs 
of consequence were debated, the letters from generals read, the 
complaints of provinces heard, ambassadors admitted to audience, 
and peace or war declared. 

When the votes were unanimous, the senators decided without 
appeal : otherwise, the affair was brought before the people, on 
whom the power of deciding then devolved. For a long time, it 
is true, the citizens of Carthage spontaneously left almost all the 
care of their government to the senate ; nor had they reason to 
complain, for they were principally indebted to it for the preser- 
vation and increase of their power during the space of several 
hundred years. But a check was put to that prosperous course 
of events, when the people, by taking nearly the whole power into 
their own hands, weakened the authority or paralyzed the action 
of the senate. Then the public prosperity rapidly declined, and 
this innovation in the government was, according to Polybius, 
one among the chief causes of the ruin of Carthage. 
. Although there existed a few good scholars and highly edu- 
cated persons among the Carthaginians, their nation, generally 
speaking, was never conspicuous for any proficiency in literature 
and the arts, nor for polish and gentleness of manners. They 
were, on the contrary, noted for craftiness and duplicity. Nay, 
their habitual disposition savored of austerity, and a sort of sav- 
age ferocity, which they too often displayed not only against 
foreigners and enemies, but even against their own citizens. The 
commanders of the fleets and armies of the republic had not 
merely to give an account of their conduct, they were also made 
responsible for the events of the^war.* Ill success was held as a 

* The conduct of the Romans towards their vanquished generals was 
very different and much more humane. They knew that misfortune is 
not a crime, nor mere imprudence an act of treason. They thought it 
a far sounder and better policy to spare the life of an unsuccessful com- 



286 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part V. 

crime against the state, and whenever a general lost a battle and 
failed in an expedition, he was almost certain, at his return, to 
end his life upon a gibbet. 

The Carthaginians evinced the same spirit of cruelty in their 
religious worship ; in public calamities, they immolated human 
victims to their gods, in order to appease the anger of these 
imaginary deities. Infants were generally chosen, without com- 
passion for their tender age, as the victims of that horrid super- 
stition. Diodorus Siculus relates that, on one occasion, no fewer 
than two hundred children, of the first families in Carthage, were 
burnt alive in honor of Saturn. It was in vain that sovereigns 
of a humane disposition, such as Darius I, king of Persia, and 
Gelo, king of Syracuse, endeavored, even by threats of war, to 
make the Carthaginians abstain in future from such atrocities ; 
the custom was soon revived, and continued till the destruction 
of Carthage. Such also, as we learn from the sacred writings,* 
had been the case with the Chanaanites of old, from whom the 
Carthaginians derived this impious and barbarous practice. 



SECOND PUNIC WAR.— b. c. 218—201. 

The second Punic war is justly thought to have been one of 
the most memorable in all history, and most worthy of the atten- 
tive consideration of the reader. Whether we consider the dura- 
tion or extent of its operations, the bravery of the troops or the 
ability of the generals on each side, the variety and vicissitude as 
well'as the importance of the events, and finally the result which, 
notwithstanding a series of defeats unparalleled in the history of 
the Roman commonwealth, secured for ever the superiority of 
Home over Carthage: every thing in it is well calculated to 
excite a lively interest.f Our narrative of that grand struggle 
wiil be comprised in the two following sections. 

mandcr, and give him an occasion to retrieve his defeat by new exer- 
tions, than inflict on him a punishment, perhaps undeserved, and com- 
monly useless, which would deprive them for ever of his services. 

* Deuter. xii, 20-31 ; and xviii, 9-12. 

f Livy thus begins his narrative of the second Punic war : "I may be 
allowed, in this part of my work, to premise that I am about to relate 
the most memorable of all wars, that which the Carthaginians, under 
the conduct of Annibal, carried on against the Romans— In parte opens 
mei, licet mihi prrefari, bcllum maximh omnium memorabile me scrip- 
turum; quod, Annibale dace, Carthaginienses cum populo Romano 
gessere." — Hist. b. xxi, c. 1. 

"La seconde guerre Punique," says Montesquieu, " est si fame use 
que tout le monde la sait. Quand on examine bien cette foule d'obstaclea 



B. o. 218—201. SECOND PUNIC WAR. 287 



§1. ORIGIN OF THE SECOND PUNIC WAR.— PROGRESS AND 
SIGNAL VICTORIES OF ANNIBAL.— b. c. 218—215. 

The chief, though more or less remote, causes of the second 
Punic war, were the severity of the conditions imposed on the 
vanquished by the late treaty of peace, the ungenerous and 
haughty manner in which the Romans afterwards took possession 
of Sardinia, and the rapid conquests of the Carthaginians in 
Spain, the natural effect of which was to fill them with confidence, 
whilst they gave apprehension to the rival power of Rome. 
Indeed, great advantages had been lately obtained by the cele- 
brated Amilcar Barcas over the Spanish tribes. Other successes 
were obtained after him by Asdrubal, his son-in-law, and others 
still greater by Annibal, his son, on whom the command of the 
army devolved after the death of Amilcar and Asdrubal. 

Annibal was, beyond comparison, the most formidable enemy 
that the Romans, in their long career of progress, ever encoun- 
tered. When he was but nine years of age, his father made him 
take a solemn oath that he would be their constant foe; and 
never was an oath more faithfully observed. No sooner did he 
appear among the troops, than he attracted the notice and gained 
the esteem of all, both officers and soldiers, not only on account 
of his striking resemblance to his father Amilcar, but chiefly on 
account of his personal merit. All admired in him an uncommon 
degree of activity, constancy, fortitude, intrepidity in the great- 
est dangers, and presence of mind in the most trying circum- 
stances.* This rare combination of qualities, to which he soon 
added a perfect acquaintance with all the parts of military science, 
raised him, at the age of twenty-six years, to the chief command 
of all the Carthaginian forces (b. c. 220). 

Immediately after his appointment, Annibal thought of 
avenging Carthage for every loss and humiliation lately sus- 

qui se presentment devant Annibal, et que cet liomme extraordinaire 
surmonta tous, on a le plus beau spectacle que nous ait fourni 1 'anti- 
quite. Rome de son cote fut un prodige de Constance." — Grandeur et 
decadence des Romains, ch. 4. 

For a full account of this momentous war, see Polybius, Gencr. Hist. 
b. iii, and fragments of several other books ; — Livy, ten entire books of 
his Roman Hist., from the twenty-first to the thirtieth, both inclusively ; — 
Florus, Epitome Return Romanarum, b. ii c. 6. — Cornelius Nepos, in 
Annib. — Plutarch, in his lives of Marcdlus and Fabius Max. — Ferguson and 
Rollin, in their Histories of the Roman Republic ; etc. 

* Plurimum audacia* ad pericula capessenda, pluriroum consilii inter 
ipsa pericula erat. Livy, b. xxi, c. 4. 



288 ANCIENT HISTORY. Pakt V 

tained from Rome. He resolved from the beginning to carry 
the war into Italy, as he was convinced that the surest way to 
fight the Romans with success, was to attack them in the very 
centre of their power, and make them tremble for their own 
existence. The attempt was one of immense difficulty and 
danger ; but it was for this reason the better adapted to the bold, 
enterprising and extensive genius of Annibal : this very attempt, 
and his conduct in its execution, have placed him among the 
ablest generals that the world has produced. 

Having first provided, as well as he was able, for the safety of 
Africa and Spain, Annibal commenced hostilities against Rome, 
by the siege, capture, and destruction of Saguntum, a Spanish 
city extremely attached to the Romans. He then completed his 
preparations for the prosecution of the war, with a wisdom which 
appeared to be the fruit of the longest experience, though he had 
been but two years at the head of armies. Finally, in the year 
B. c. 218, he left Spain, and advanced by land towards Italy with 
about sixty thousand men, all full of ardor and courage under 
such a general. But so long a route across rivers, mountains, 
hostile districts, and a thousand other obstacles, cost him upwards 
of one half of this gallant army ; and, on a review of his soldiers 
after the passage of the Alps and his arrival in Piedmont, he 
found only twenty thousand infantry and six thousand cavalry. 
With so small a force did Annibal venture to attack a republic, 
which, according to a detailed account left by Polybius, could 
levy from seven to eight hundred thousand troops among its 
citizens and allies.* 

The first encounter of Annibal with the Romans in Italy took 
place near the river Ticinus, and consisted of a combat between 
the whole cavalry of both sides. The Roman force was defeated, 
and the consul P. Cornelius Scipio, who commanded it, grievously 
wounded. He might even have lost his liberty or his life, had 
not his son, then a youth seventeen years of age, run to his 
assistance and rescued him from danger. This young hero was 
Publius Scipio, who afterwards had the honor to vanquish Annibal 
and put an end to the second Punic war. 

After the battle of the Ticinus, the Gauls inhabiting the coun- 
try hastened, on all sides, to enter into an alliance with the 
Carthaginians, supplied them with ammunition, and enlisted in 
their army. This was the very effect which Annibal had antici- 
pated and relied on for the recruiting of his forces. Shortly after, 
he won a still greater victory near the small river Trebia, over 

*Polyb. General History, b. ii, c. 2. 



b. c. 218—201. SECOND PUNIC WAR. 289 

forty thousand Romans commanded by the other consul Sempro- 
nius, who had just come in great haste from Sicily, to join his 
colleague. So masterly were the dispositions of the Carthaginian 
general, that, with little loss on his side, he cut off no fewer than 
twenty-six thousand Romans. 

The ensuing year (b. c. 217), Annibal, who had now advanced 
into the heart of Italy, was opposed by Flaminius, another brave, 
but rash and presumptuous leader. With admirable skill, he drew 
him into a valley near the lake of Thrasymenes, after having 
taken the precaution to surround the valley with Carthaginian 
troops artfully concealed behind the hills. He no sooner saw 
the enemy's legions sufficiently entangled in this narrow place, 
than he sounded the charge, and simultaneously attacked them 
in front, in flank, and in the rear. Every one may judge of the 
terror and dismay of the Romans thus assailed on all sides. Ac- 
cording to Polybius, they suffered themselves to be slaughtered 
without resistance ; but according to Livy, despair revived their 
courage, and both parties began to fight with incredible animosity, 
their fury being so great, that none of the combatants noticed an 
earthquake which took place at the same time, and destroyed 
considerable portions of several Italian cities. During this con- 
fusion, Flaminius was slain by an Insubrian Gaul, and the 
Romans, dispirited by this accident, gave way and fled. Some 
of them, closely pressed by a victorious enemy, threw themselves 
into the lake, whilst others climbing over the mountains fell into 
the hands of the foes whom they sought to avoid. Fifteen thou- 
sand at least were cut in pieces ; perhaps an equal number were 
taken prisoners, and only ten thousand escaped by different roads 
to Rome, where the news of this disastrous battle caused universal 
grief and alarm. 

Never had the Romans experienced such a succession of 
defeats. They felt the necessity of appointing a general whose 
superior authority and prudence might retrieve, in some measure, 
the faults or the misfortune of his predecessors. Fabius Maxi- 
mum was chosen dictator ; and indeed no better choice could have 
been made in the present juncture, as this illustrious and truly 
great man was the first who put a check to the victories of 
Annibal. Always attentive to the motions of this terrible enemy, 
he contented himself with harassing him in his march without 
coming to any decisive engagement ; if he ever allowed the 
soldiers to fight, it was only in slight skirmishes, and so very 
cautiously that his troops generally had the advantage. 

By this wise conduct, Fabius gradually revived the courage or 
confidence of the Romans, which the loss of three successive 

25 



290 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part V. 

battles had greatly diminished. On one occasion, he saved his 
presumptuous colleague Minucius from certain defeat ; on another, 
he even succeeded in enclosing the Carthaginians within a valley 
between Capua and Falernum. Annibal perceived that his own 
stratagems were employed against himself.* He immediately 
ordered two thousand oxen to be collected together, caused 
bundles of dry wood to be tied to their horns and set on fiie 
during the night, and then ordered these animals to be driven 
towards the hills, near the narrow passes which were guarded by 
the enemy. Every thing happened as he desired : the oxen, feel- 
ing the fire, became furious, and ran wildly in every direction ; 
the Romans, and Fabius himself, apprehensive of an attack, dared 
not quit their intrenchments during the night, whilst they who 
guarded the defile, still more frightened than the rest, abandoned 
their post and fled to the mountains. Annibal seized the oppor- 
tunity, and rescued all his troops from the danger of their 
situation. 

After the dictatorship of Fabius, the Roman people appointed 
for their consuls Paulus iEmilius and Terentius Varro, the first 
of whom had prudence enough to save, and the second temerity 
enough to ruin, the republic. Unfortunately, the opinion of 
Varro prevailed as to the manner of conducting the war. Render- 
ed still bolder on account of a slight advantage which he gained 
at first over the Carthaginians, he prepared for a battle in an open 
plain near the village of Cannae and the little river Aufidus. 
The spot had been purposely selected by Annibal, as extremely 
favorable to his cavalry. Besides the advantage of the place, he 
arranged his troops in so skilful a manner and with such sagacity, 
that the Romans, during the conflict, at the same time had to face 
the wind, the dust, and the rays of a scorching sun. 

Shortly after, the battle began. At the two wings, the supe- 
rior cavalry of Annibal soon broke and put to flight the cavalry of 
the Romans and their allies. In the centre, the Romans 
advanced with great courage against the auxiliary troops of Gauls 
and Spaniards led by Annibal in person ; the latter, conformably 
to the views of their general, gradually gave way, so as to leave a 
considerable opening into which the legions hurried precipitately 
and in confusion. At that moment, Annibal ordered his heavy- 
armed Africans on each side to attack the Romans on the flank, 
whilst his victorious cavalry attacked them in their rear. Courage 
and discipline were of no avail against this masterly disposition ; 
a dreadful carnage ensued on all sides. Whilst the consul Varro 

* Nee Annibalein fefellit suis ge artibus peti. — Livy, lb. xxii, c. 16. 



*. c. 218—201. SECOND PUNIC WAR. - 291 

escaped with seventy horsemen, iEmilius, the other consul, lost 
his life on the field of battle, together with twenty-five or thirty 
chief officers, eighty senators, who were serving as volunteers, 
and about fifty thousand soldiers, according to Livy, nay seventy 
thousand, according to Polybius, whose testimony, as more 
ancient, more consistent, and naturally more impartial, is by far 
the more worthy of credit.* 

This was the most bloody and signal overthrow that the Ro- 
mans, in their long course of warfare, had hitherto experienced. 
The result of the battle did, in every respect, immense honor 
to Annibal, and the more so, as he had opposed only fifty thou- 
sand men to more than eighty-seven thousand Roman troops, 
then considered the best in the world. Whilst he was receiving 
after the battle the warm congratulations of his officers, Mahar- 
bal, one of them, and general of the cavalry, exhorted him to 
march without delay against Rome, promising that within five 
days they would take their supper within the capitol. Upon the 
answer of Annibal that an attempt of this kind required mature 
deliberation, Maharbal replied : u You know, Annibal, how to 
conquer, but you know not how to improve your victory ."f And 
it is generally believed, says Livy, that this delay saved both the 
city and the empire of Rome (b. c. 216). J 

* The number of the Roman troops before the battle is generally 
admitted to have been from eighty-seven to eighty-eight thousand, 
whilst the number of survivors after the battle does not appear, in any 
account, to have exceeded eighteen thousand, fugitives or prisoners. 
Now, if eighteen thousand survivors are deducted from eighty-seven or 
eighty-eight thousand men that composed the army before the battle, the 
number of slain must have amounted to about seventy thousand, and this 
is the number assigned by Polybius. 

f " Vincere scis, Annibal; victoria uti nescis." Mora ejus diei satis 
creditur saluti fuisse urbi atque imperio. — Livy, b. xxii, c. 51. 

J There are certain assertions which, because they have been once 
advanced by some conspicuous man, are continually repeated ever after, 
without taking much trouble to ascertain their real merit" and accuracy. 
Since the time when Livy wrote that Rome was saved by the delays of 
Annibal, and by his unwillingness to attack it immediately after the 
battle of Cannoe, it has been customary to view the conduct of this gene- 
ral as an unpardonable fault. Yet, it may be pleaded in defence of 
Annibal, that the great advantages he had hitherto gained were chiefly 
owing to his cavalry, which could not act in a siege ; whilst it was 
scarcely possible for his infantry alone, five or six thousand of whom 
had fallen in the last battle, either to surround or to storm a large, popu- 
lous and well fortified city, as he had neither ammunition, nor machines, 
nor other things requisite for the attempt. 

Experience, besides, taught Annibal to be cautious. After his vic- 
tory at Thrasymenes, he had failed and even suffered a great loss in the 



292 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part V. 

Some months later, Annibal fell, according to the same his- 
torian, into a still greater fault than that of his remissness. After 
the battle of Cannse, many allies of the Romans abandoned their 
party which they thought irretrievably lost, and sided with the 
conqueror : among them were the Campanians, with Capua their 
capital, a rich, powerful, and licentious town. Annibal impru- 
dently selected it for his winter quarters ; and this choice proved 
highly fatal to the courage of his troops. Here these hardy 
warriors, who had undergone the severest hardships and success- 
fully confronted the greatest perils of war, permitted themselves 
to be conquered by the attractions of an indolent and a sensual 
life. After their sojourn in Capua, they seemed no longer the 
same men and soldiers as before. They had lost in it their mili- 
tary ardor as well as their love of discipline, their recollection 
of past glory as well as all hope or desire of future success ; and 
from that epoch the fortunes of Annibal were visibly on the 
decline.* 

siege of Spoletum, a place not deserving to be compared -with Rome, as 
Livy himself acknowledges (b. xxii, c. 9). How much greater, then, were 
the chances of failure in the siege of Rome itself? For it can scarcely 
be doubted but that the Romans, inured to warfare from their infancy, 
would use their best efforts in defence of their liberty and families ; and, 
when sheltered by walls and ramparts, would stand their ground against 
a comparatively small number of assailants. In fine, no Italian nation 
had yet declared for Annibal. It was highly important for him to gain 
as many as he could, before attempting a direct attack upon Rome ; be- 
cause, if he should fail in this attempt, as in every probability he would, 
this alone might prevent him from gaining any ally to his side, and 
ruin at once the prospect of his affairs. 

For these and similar reasons, such as have very attentively weighed 
this matter, are inclined to think that the science of war did not allow 
Annibal to attack Rome immediately after the battle of Cannae, and 
that the same delay which many look upon as a signal oversight, was in 
him the effect of profound wisdom and prudence. — See Montesquieu, 
Grandeur et decadence des Romains, ch. iv ; Engl. Univ. Hist. vol. ix, p. 
269 ; Ferguson, Progress and Termination of the Roman Republic, b. i, ch. 
5 ; Rollings Roman History, vol. v, pp. 94-96, etc. 

* Here also, doubts may be entertained as to the perfect accuracy 
of these remarks of Livy, however admirable he is in most respects as 
an historian. The sojourn of the Carthaginians at Capua, although it 
had bad effects, was neither the only nor even the principal cause of 
the subsequent decline of their fortunes. Those soldiers who, accord- 
ing to Livy, were so much enervated by their stay in Capua, still 
fought with great bravery on numberless occasions, took cities in the 
very sight of the Romans, maintained themselves in Italy fourteen years 
longer, till they were recalled by orders from Carthage, and, if occa- 
sionally defeated, frequently also defeated their enemies, even when 
commanded by the ablest officers of the republic. Hence, there is every 



u. c. 218—201. SECOND PUNIC WAR. 293 

Such is in substance the language of Livy, which we produce 
without answering for its exactness, but reserving this discussion 
for a note. In the mean while, this remains certain, that Anni- 
bal himself, during his sojourn in Campania, far from wasting 
his time in useless employment, or losing sight of the grand ob- 
ject of his expedition, did, on the contrary, at this very period 
of the war, earnestly solicit new succors and reinforcements from 
Carthage for a vigorous prosecution of hostilities, and concluded 
a treaty offensive and defensive with the king of Macedon on 
the one side, and with the Syracusans on the other ) two transac- 
tions that would have placed Rome in the greatest danger she 
ever encountered, had the chief rulers at Carthage and the new 
allies of Annibal acted with more prudence and vigor. 

reason to believe that, in this point also, the Roman historian has over- 
rated the fault of Annibal and its consequences. 

The real cause of the decline of this great general's affairs was this : 
Whilst the Romans easily recruited their armies, he himself was left 
destitute of necessary succors and reinforcements from Carthage, where 
there existed a powerful faction opposed to him and to the continuance 
of the war. This is the express opinion of not only Montesquieu, Fer- 
guson, Rollin, etc., but likewise of Cornelius Nepos, one of the most 
judicious authors of antiquity, and, though an Italian, one of the great- 
est admirers of Annibal. " Si verum est," says he, " quod nemo du- 
bitat, ut populus Romanus omnes gentes virtute superarit, non est 
inficiandum Annibalem tanto prtestitisse cceteros imperatores prudentia 
quanto populus Romanus antecedebat fortitucline cunctas nationes. 
Nam quotiescumque cum eo congressus est in Italia, semper discessit 
superior : quo d nisi domi civium suorum invidia debilitaius esset, Romanos 
videtur superare potuisse. Sed multorum obtrectatio vicit unius virtutem." 
— Corn. Nep. in Annib. c. 1. 

It is also very remarkable, that the latter historian (c. 1. 5. 6) con- 
siders Annibal as having been constantly victorious in his Italian cam- 
paigns. The same is found in Justin's History (b. xxxi, c. 5) to have 
been asserted by Annibal himself, and Polybius likewise (b. xv, extract 
1) says that he was conquered for the first time at the battle of Zama 
in Africa. On the contrary, Livy (b. xxiii and xxvii), and Plutarch (in 
MarcelL), mention several defeats sustained by this general in Italy. 
The only way perhaps to reconcile these conflicting accounts, is to ad- 
mit that Annibal's defeats must have been very inconsiderable when 
compared with his victories, and were owing to such circumstances 
as could not impair his military reputation. A similar remark may be 
applied to the portrait of this great man drawn by the same Livy (b. 
xxi, c. 4). Without either impeaching the sincerity of the Roman his- 
torian, or admitting the Carthaginian leader to have been blameless, it 
may be said that Livy was betrayed by national prejudice into a ten- 
dency to lessen the superior merit of Annibal, both in his public 
achievements and in his personal character. 



25* 



294 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part V. 



g II. PREPONDERANCE REGAINED BY THE ROMANS.— SCIPIO 
AFRICANUS.— BATTLE OF ZAMA, AND THE CONCLUSION OF 
THE WAR.— b. c. 214.— 201. 

The revolt of Capua and its inhabitants had greatly exasperated 
the Romans. They resolved, so soon as the state of their affairs 
permitted, to lay siege to that proud city, and not to desist from 
their enterprise, till they had taken ample revenge on its inhabi- 
tants. The proconsuls Appius and Fulvius were appointed for 
this expedition, and carried on the attack with such vigor, that 
the place was soon reduced to the utmost distress. The Capuans, 
aided by some Carthaginian troops, offered indeed a brave resist- 
ance, but famine began to rage among them, and no courage was 
able to prevail against this powerful enemy : in vain, too, did 
Annibal strive to force the lines of the besiegers; after a sharp 
and almost successful conflict, he was repelled. As a last re- 
source, he suddenly marched his troops towards Rome, in the 
hope that the Romans would withdraw from Capua, in order to 
defend their own capital. But they did not suffer themselves to 
be caught in the snare, and diverted from their design ; the siege 
of Capua was not discontinued, and Annibal found Rome pre- 
pared to repel every attempt. 

Two incidents contributed to increase his vexation and disap- 
pointment : the first was that, while he lay encamped near one 
of the gates of Rome, recruits had been sent by another gate to 
the Roman army in Spain j the second, that the field in which 
his camp was pitched,' had been just sold at its full value. Giving 
up, therefore, all hope of reducing his foes and saving his allies, 
he withdrew to another part of Italy. Capua, thus left to itself, 
did not resist much longer. After many of its senators had un- 
dergone a tragical and voluntary death, the city surrendered at 
discretion, and immediately experienced the severity of the vic- 
tors, as well by the execution of many citizens, as by the loss of 
all its privileges. The success of that famous siege gave Rome 
a manifest superiority over the Carthaginians. It proved at the 
same time how formidable was the power of the Romans, when 
they undertook to punish perfidious allies, and how feeble was 
the protection which even the victorious Annibal could afford his 
friends in time of their greatest need. 

The result of a similar attempt in Sicily was equally con- 
spicuous in itself, and equally decisive in favor of Rome. After 
the death of Kiug Iliero, Syracuse had embraced the party of 



b. c. 218—201. SECOND PUNIC WAR. 295 

the Carthaginians ; an example of this nature, if permitted to go 
unpunished, might easily cause the ruin of the Roman interest in 
Sicily. To prevent this, the consul Marcellus, who had just 
gained an advantage over Annibal near the city of Nola, crossed 
the Sicilian strait, and laid siege to Syracuse both by land and 
sea. In all probability, he would have soon brought the siege to 
a close but for the famous Archimedes, the greatest geometrician 
of antiquity. This wonderful man invented a multitude of en- 
gines of every size and shape to annoy the besiegers, and by their 
means threw all sorts of missive weapons and stones of an enor- 
mous size, with such rapidity and violence, that they crushed 
whatever came in their way, and forced the land troops of the 
Romans to stay at a great distance from the wall, without being 
able to make either a mine or an assault. At sea the peril was 
still greater. Archimedes had placed behind the walls lofty and 
strong machines, which, laying hold of the Roman vessels by 
means of enormous hooks and grappling irons, lifted them up, 
and after making them whirl about with rapidity, sunk them with 
all on board, or dashed them to pieces against the rocks. Mar- 
cellus, repelled on all sides, was obliged to expect from blockade 
and starvation, a success which he could not obtain by open force. 

The siege lasted in this manner for three years with scarcely 
any progress, when the contrivance of a private soldier enabled 
Marcellus to take Syracuse. This man conceived the idea of 
counting, from a favorable spot, the stones of the wall, and of 
measuring by the eye the height of each of them; having made 
his calculation, he found that the whole height was less than the 
Romans believed, and that with ladders of moderate size, it might 
be easily scaled. Marcellus being told of this circumstance, re- 
solved to put the information to profit. He availed himself of a 
great festivity observed by the Syracusans, to make his bravest 
soldiers advance towards the rampart during the night, and they 
so well seconded his views, that, in a short time, they made them- 
selves masters of a part of the town. 

A few weeks later, Marcellus took possession of the whole 
city; but the joy of his success was damped by an unfortunate 
accident. Whilst confusion reigned in Syracuse, Archimedes 
was wholly intent in his closet «on the examination of a geometri- 
cal figure. A Roman soldier suddenly appeared and commanded 
the mathematician to accompany him to Marcellus ; Archimedes, 
on his part, desired his visiter to wait a moment, till he would 
have solved his problem and completed his demonstration. But 
the soldier, who cared very little for the demonstration and the 
problem, taking this answer for an insult, drew his sword and 



296 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part V. 

killed him on the spot. Marcellus was sensibly afflicted at the 
melancholy event, and not only gave a solemn funeral to Archi- 
medes, but even erected a monument to his memory (b. c. 212). 

The remainder of Sicily followed the example and fortunes of 
Syracuse, and the whole island passed under the power of the 
Romans. As to Marcellus, after his return to Rome, he was 
elected consul a fourth and a fifth time, continued to signalize 
himself by various exploits, and finally perished in an ambuscade 
prepared by Annibal. 

The war was carried on with no less vigor in Spain, than in 
Italy and Sicily. Cornelius Scipio, the same who had been 
wounded near the Ticinus, and Cneius Scipio, his brother, had 
won great victories and made great conquests in Spain over the 
Carthaginians. Emboldened by their success, they divided their 
troops, in order to complete within a shorter time the reduction 
of the country. This imprudent step was the cause of their ruin. 
The Carthaginian generals adopted the contrary method, and, 
combining their efforts, overthrew the two brothers separately ; 
the defeat of the Romans was so terrible and disastrous, that 
even both Scipios lost their lives in the struggle. 

This change of fortune seemed calculated to ruin altogether 
the power of the Romans in Spain. It was still upheld, it is 
true, by the valor and prudence of an officer called Marcius, who 
even succeeded with such troops as he could rally, in gaining two 
victories over the Carthaginians ; yet so little hope of success in 
that country was entertained at Rome, that, when the time arrived 
to appoint a proconsul for Spain, no candidate at first presented 
himself. In the general dismay of the people, one young man, 
twenty-four years old, arose and declared that he would readily 
accept the dangerous office, if intrusted to him, and that he hoped 
to discharge its duties with success. This man was Publius 
Scipio, Cornelius Scipio's son, whom we have already had occa- 
casion to mention, and who was now anxious to avenge both the 
death of his father and uncle, and the defeat of the Roman ar- 
mies. His proposal elicited from every one cries of joy, admira- 
tion and confidence ; the people, with unanimous consent, named 
him proconsul and general of all the Roman forces in Spain. 

Scipio did not frustrate the high expectations reposed in him. 
Shortly after his landing on the Spanish shores, he took the 
wealthy and strong city of Carthago Nova. By his engaging 
manners, his generosity and his benefits, he drew over to the 
Roman cause nearly all the nations of Spain. In fine, he con- 
quered four Carthaginian generals, destroyed or scattered their 
armies, and obliged them to evacuate the whole Spanish peninsula. 



b c. 218—201. SECOND TUNIC WAR. 297 

Asdrubal, one of them, led the remnants of his troops across 
the Pyrenees, and adding to their number a multitude of auxil- 
iary Gauls, crossed the Alps also, and entered Italy with a view 
to join and reinforce his brother Annibal. Much was to be 
feared from this new enemy, especially if he could effect the de- 
sired junction. Livius, one of the consuls, and the praetor Por- 
cius, each at the head of an army, went to oppose him in the 
north of Italy, whilst Nero, the other consul, was sent against 
Annibal in the south. Asdrubal had already reached the neigh- 
borhood of Placentia, when his letters to Annibal were inter- 
cepted by the Romans. Upon the information which they af- 
forded, Nero contrived a scheme not less wise than daring : with 
seven thousand chosen men, he secretly left his camp, and trav- 
ersing a great part of Italy in the space of six or seven days, 
joined Livius his colleague during the night. On the following 
day, the three Roman generals attacked Asdrubal near the river 
Metaurus j he on his part did all that could be expected from an 
experienced leader, and displayed a valor and skill worthy of 
better success. After seizing an advantageous post, he himself 
led on his soldiers to the charge against an enemy superior to 
them in number and resolution. He animated them by his 
words, supported them by his example, and by entreaties or 
menaces endeavored to bring back those that fled; yet seeing that 
victory declared for the Romans, and unwilling to survive so 
many thousand men who had left every thing to follow his for- 
tunes, he rushed into the midst of a Roman cohort, and continued 
to fight till he met that death which became the son of Amil-car 
and the brother of Annibal. 

Nero immediately returned to his former camp, which he 
reached in six days. Having brought with him the head of 
Asdrubal, he caused it to be thrown into the camp of the Car- 
thaginians; this informed Annibal of the whole extent of his 
brother's disaster, and plunged him into the deepest affliction. 
Being thenceforth unable to undertake any thing of importance, 
he collected his forces, and retired into the extremities of the 
province of Brutium. But never perhaps was he greater than 
in the midst of so many and so melancholy reverses. It is con- 
sidered something like a prodigy * that he maintained himself 
for so long a time in a hostile country, without reinforcements 
and assistance from Carthage ; and still more so, that he kept 

* This is the identical expression used by Bossuet, Discourse on Univ. 
Hist, part iii, c. 6 ; and Rollin, Roman Hist. vol. vi, p. 168 ; conformably 
to the meaning of Polybius, b. xi, extract 4th, and of Livy himself, b. 
xxviii, ch. 12. 



298 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part V. 

his troops, a medley of different nations, quietly under his ban- 
ner, without any sedition or mutiny on their part even in their 
greatest need and most trying circumstances. It is impossible, 
says Polybius, to contemplate the length and extent of Annibal's 
war against the Romans, and not be struck with admiration at 
the courage, the prudence, and the ability of this great com- 
mander. Above all, the latter part of his expedition, when dif- 
ficulties of every sort pressed upon him, is enough to prove the 
greatness of his mind, the fertility of his genius, and the wonder- 
ful skill which he possessed in the command of armies. 

In the mean while, Scipio, having driven the Carthaginians 
from Spain, returned to Rome, where the people gave him extra- 
ordinary marks of favor and esteem. He was by unanimous 
consent appointed consul, with Sicily for his department, and 
permission to pass over to Africa, if he thought it expedient. 
This was the object which he most earnestly desired; for he en- 
tertained a full conviction, that the surest means to remove 
Annibal from Italy and put an end to so long a conflict, was to 
make Africa the seat of the war. When he had completed his 
preparations, he sailed for the African shores with a fleet and an 
army equipped in the very best order, landed his troops, and laid 
siege to the important city of Utica. 

The Carthaginians sent against the Romans two numerous 
armies, the one under the command of Syphax, a Numiclian 
prince, the other under Asdrubal, the son of Grisco. Scipio, 
having learned from his spies that in these two armies the tents 
of the soldiers were composed only of reeds and withered branches, 
took a resolution to destroy both camps by fire during the night: 
he gave charge to Lselius his lieutenant and Masinissa his ally, 
to attack and burn the camp of Syphax, and he himself advanced 
with great caution against that of Asdrubal. 

Every thing succeeded according to his wishes. Not only the 
conflagration spread with the utmost rapidity through the camp 
of Syphax, but most of the Numidians were either put to the 
sword by the soldiers of Masinissa, or perished in the flames, or 
crushed one another at the gates which were too narrow to give 
a free passage to the multitude of fugitives. The like disaster 
soon happened in the camp of the Carthaginians. They had 
perceived the spreading fire, and attributing it to accident, several 
of them ran confusedly and without any precaution, to afford as- 
sistance to their allies ; all were destroyed by the Romans under 
Scipio. This general then attacked the camp itself, and finding 
it open and unguarded, consigned it likewise to the flames. Of 
the numerous troops of the Carthaginians and Numidians, forty 



b c. 218—201. SECOND PUNIC WAR. 209 

thousand perished in that dreadful night j five or six thousand 
were taken prisoners, and only two or three thousand made their 
escape with Asdrubal and Syphax. Shortly after, these two 
generals, having assembled a new army of thirty thousand men ; 
were again completely defeated by Scipio. 

Carthage, overwhelmed by so many losses, hastily sent mes- 
sengers to recall Annibal from Italy. He obeyed the order; 
but it was only with feelings of intense grief and indignation, that 
he quitted the Italian soil which he had so long considered as his 
prey. Having landed on the coast of Africa, without entering 
Carthage, he went directly at the head of his troops to encounter 
Scipio. Yet, as he was conscious of the great strength of the 
Romans, and of an impending increase of danger for his country 
in case of another defeat, he asked of the Roman general an in- 
terview in order to treat of peace. The request was granted, and 
the interview took place on an eminence between the camps of 
both armies. Here these two famous heroes, not only the great- 
est men of their own age, but even equal in merit to any com- 
mander and conqueror that ever lived, gazed for some time at 
each other in silent admiration.* Annibal spoke first and with 
great dignity, but proposed conditions little suitable to the present 
fortunes of Carthage ; Scipio, who answered in the same digni- 
fied manner, would not accept them, and both came to the deter- 
mination to decide the quarrel at once by an appeal to arms. 

The battle was fought on the following day in the plains of 
Zama. It is needless to say that, on both sides, the utmost skill 
was used to promote or secure the success of an action on which 
the future destiny of Carthage and Rome depended. Annibal in 
particular, as Scipio acknowledged, seemed to surpass himself on 
that day; but the superior strength and discipline of the Romans, 
aided by the talent of their leader, baffled all the hopes of the 
former, and a variety of incidents turning his very best measures 
against himself, united to thwart his combined courage, ability, 
and experience. After having done, both before and during the 
battle, whatever could be done by a great and undaunted general, 
after having resisted to the last, and seen his brave veteran sol- 
diers perish on all sides, he was entirely defeated and driven from 
the field (b. c. 202). Above fifteen hundred of the Romans fell 
in the action; but on the side of the Carthaginians, more than 
twenty thousand were slain, and almost as many taken prisoners. 
Such was the memorable battle of Zama, which established for 

* Submotis pari spatio armatis, cum singulis interpretibus congressi 
sunt non suco modd setatis maximi duces, sed omnes ante se memoriae 
omnium gentium, cuilibet regum imperatorumve pares. Livy, b.xxx,c.30. 



300 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part V. 

ever the superiority of Rome over Carthage, and contributed, 
more than any other battle, to render the Romans masters of 
the world.* (See § in of the Appendix.) 

Annibal, on his return to Carthage, not only acknowledged 
his defeat, but urged an immediate acceptance of all the terms 
of peace offered by the conqueror. They were substantially the 
same with those proposed before the battle of Zama, viz. that the 
Carthaginians should henceforth content themselves with their 
possessions in Africa ; that they should deliver up to the Romans 
all the prisoners and deserters who had at any time fallen into 
their hands, together with their elephants and all their long ves- 
sels except ten galleys ; that they should wage no war in future 
without the consent of the Roman people ; and that they should 
pay ten thousand talents of silver in the course of fifty years. 
These terms were accepted, and ratified shortly after by a solemn 
treaty of peace ; and thus ended the second Punic war, in the 
year b. c. 201. 



SCIPIO AND ANNIBAL CONTINUED.— b. c. 201—183. 

Scipio, besides the treaty concluded with the Carthaginians, 
made some other arrangements in Africa • for instance, he gave 
to Masinissa, his ally, the kingdom of Syphax who was now a 
prisoner. When this was done, the Roman general embarked 
with all his troops, and, after passing the sea, traversed Italy 
through an immense concourse of people, who ran from all sides 
to behold the deliverer of his country, the terror of Carthage, and 
the conqueror of Annibal. After enjoying a magnificent entry 
into Rome, he received the surname of Africamis, which becom- 
ing blended with his proper name, revived at every moment the 
recollection of his triumph. 

Annibal, on his part, was called to display his talents on a new 
theatre. Being appointed prastor at Carthage and invested with 
the proper authority to conduct the civil affairs of the state, he 
executed, with no less success than ability and zeal, important 
reforms both in the administration of justice and in the manage- 
ment of the finances. But these reforms raised against him vio- 

* All this is expressed with admirable conciseness by Florus in these 
words : " Constat utriusqne ducis confessione, nee melius instrni aciem, 
nee acrius potuisse pugnari. Hoc Scipio de Annibalis, Annibal de Sci- 
pionis exercitu, prsedicaverunt. Sed tamen Annibal cessit; pricmium- 
que victorise Africa fuit, et secutus Africam statim terrarum orbis." 
Epitome, b. ii, c. 6. 



b. c. 201—183. SCIPIO AND ANNfBAL. 301 

lent opponents at home, who had even the baseness to excite the 
alarms of his enemies abroad, by representing him as a dangerous 
and constant foe to the Roman republic. Annibal saw the storm 
gathering around him, and by a timely flight escaped from Car- 
thage to Tyre, where he met with a most flattering reception. 
Thence he proceeded to the court of Antiochus the Great, king 
of Syria, and his presence alone emboldened that prince to un- 
dertake a war against the Romans. Annibal offered his services, 
and gave the best advice for the conduct of this war ; yet Antio- 
chus knew not how to profit by either, and the illustrious exile, 
finding himself rather exposed to new perils, set out for the island 
of Crete, where he for some time resided. 

His last asylum was the court of Prusias, king of Bithynia. 
He enabled this prince to obtain several victories over his enemy 
Eumenes, king of Pergamus ; one of them, at sea, was the result 
of a very curious stratagem. Having filled a large number of 
earthen pots with venomous serpents, he caused them to be 
thrown, during the conflict, into the Pergamenian vessels; great 
confusion ensued among their crews and soldiers, and the whole 
fleet withdrawing in haste left the victory to Annibal. So many 
services ought naturally to have secured to him the lasting grati- 
tude of Prusias; still the contrary happened. That monarch, at 
the request of the Romans, who, it seemed, could enjoy no de- 
gree of security as long as Annibal was alive, promised to betray 
him into their hands. The unfortunate general, perceiving the 
danger and seeing no possibility of escape, took poison, and died 
at the age of about sixty-four years (b. c. 183). 

Such was the end of this great man, according to all, one of 
the ablest, and according to some, the ablest commander that 
ever existed ; of one whose defeats arose from circumstances over 
which he had no control, and whose victories were all the fruit 
of superior genius ; of one who united the merit of a most saga- 
cious politician with that of a consummate general ; of one, in 
fine, whom the mightiest nation in the world could not remember 
during his life, without a sort of feverish apprehension. Al- 
though he is justly reproached with some acts of cruelty, com- 
mitted in times of great vexation or disappointment, his habits 
and moral qualifications, liberality, moderation, temperance, and 
continency, were worthy of his public character. He was not 
even a stranger to learning, and notwithstanding his incessant 
labors in war or civil administration, he found time to become 
proficient in polite literature. Many of his repartees, which have 
been preserved by historians, show that he was possessed of a 
quick and sagacious mind as well as an excellent judgment. 



302 1NCIENT HISTORY. Part V- 

Annibal, then, was not only a great, but even an extraordinary 
man, and one whose equal is very seldom seen in the course of 
ages. It is commonly believed that he died in the same year 
(b. C. 183) with Philopoemen and Scipio, two other admirable 
personages, and, together with Annibal, the ablest commanders 
of their time. "Insignis hie annus," says Justin (b. xxxii, c. 4), 
u trium toto orbe maximorum imperatorum mortibus fuit, Anni- 
balis ; et Philopoenienis, et Scipionis Africani." 



ANTIOCHUS THE GREAT, KING OF SYRIA.— b. c. 223—187. 

The history of Annibal is naturally connected with that of the 
sovereigns whom he endeavored to rouse against the Romans. 
The most conspicuous of them was Antiochus, king of Syria, who 
gave an asylum to this illustrious exile. Antiochus was the son 
of Seleucus-Callinicus, and the sixth monarch of that kingdom 
after its foundation by Seleucus-Nicanor. He ascended the throne 
at the age of about fifteen years, and by his achievements during 
a considerable part of his reign, deserved the 'surname of Great, 
by which he is distinguished in history from many other kings 
of Syria, who also bore the name of Antiochus. 

The first military campaigns of that prince were not, it is true, 
very successful ; on the contrary, having undertaken to fight a 
great battle against the Egyptians near Raphia, he was entirely 
defeated by them in the year b. c. 217. But his losses on that 
occasion were amply compensated by his conquests in other parts 
of Asia. Having checked the revolt of some ambitious leaders, 
who took advantage of his youth to withdraw their allegiance, 
he afterwards led his armies towards the east. Here, if he failed 
to overthrow the newly established empire of the Parthians, he 
at least stripped it of its late acquisitions, and obliged its king 
Arsaces to content himself with the provinces of Parthia and 
Hyrcania. 

After this campaign and a similar one in Bactriana, the king, 
in pursuit of new advantages, crossed mount Caucasus or the 
ridge so designated by the ancients. As the various countries 
which extend, east of the Tigris, from that mountain to the south- 
ern ocean, had some time before shaken off the yoke of Syria, 
he went through them all at the head of his victorious troops, 
and every where succeeded in re-establishing his authority. This 
expedition lasted seven years, during which he displayed so much 
vigor and activity, that he became formidable to all the neigh- 
boring nations. He returned to Antioch covered with glory, 



B. c. 223—187. ANTIOCIIUS THE GREAT. 303 

and with the reputation of a monarch equally prudent and cou- 
rageous. 

About this time, Ptolemy Philopator, king of Egypt, died, 
leaving for his successor a child only five years of age. Antiochus 
lost no time to improve the circumstance, and to turn it to his 
own profit ; he invaded Coele-Syria and Palestine, the constant 
object of dispute between the kings of Egypt and Syria, and 
easily subdued those two provinces. Animated by this success, 
he now formed a design to reconquer all the cities of Asia Minor, 
which he pretended had formerly belonged to the Syrian mon- 
archy. But here he met with an unforeseen opposition, and this 
obstacle not only could not be overcome by his efforts, but even 
caused the rapid decline, and nearly the utter ruin, of his affairs. 

The cities whose liberty was at stake, had solicited and ob- 
tained the assistance of the Romans. It was the interest of these 
high-spirited republicans, now so much exalted by the happy 
conclusion of the second Punic war, not to suffer a new rival in 
their way. Their legions, after having first checked the king's 
progress, came at last to a decisive engagement with him in the 
plains of Magnesia (b. c. 190). Although Antiochus fought 
with great valor, and opposed eighty-two thousand troops to thirty 
thousand Romans, he experienced a most signal defeat which cost 
him more than two-thirds of his army.* He was compelled to sue 
for peace, and could obtain it under no other condition than by 
yielding all the provinces of Asia on the north-western side of 
Mount Taurus, and defraying all the expenses of the war. 

Upon the news of this extraordinary success, Home decreed a 
triumph to her admiral iEmilius who had crippled the maritime 
power of Syria, and still more justly to the consul Lucius Scipio 
who had conquered the king in person. The latter received the 
surname of Asiatkus, and became equal in this respect to his 
brother Publius Scipio, on whom the title of A/ricanus had been 
conferred after his victory over Annibal. 

This war against Antiochus was of short duration, cost the 
Romans but little, and yet contributed very much to the aggran- 
dizement of their empire. But, at the same time, its result also 
began to prepare the decay and final dissolution of that very em- 
pire, by introducing wealth, avarice, ambition, and licentiousness 
into its capital. In effect, it is to the period of the Syrian war 
and the conquest of Asia, that Pliny traces the origin of that 
moral depravity which pervaded Rome, and was attended with so 
long a train of evils. Asia, vanquished by the Romans, after- 

* See Livy, b. xxxvii, c. 44 ; and Justin, b. xxxi, c. 8. 



304 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part V. 

wards vanquished them by its vices. Luxury, more fatal than 
armies, spread its poison among them, and in this manner avenged 
the world subdued by their arms : 

Ssevior armis 
Luxuria incubuit, victumque ulciscitur orberu. 

Juven. Sat. vi, 1, 215, 216. 

But, if the conflict between the Romans and Antiochus proved 
fatal to the conquerors themselves, it gave a most disastrous blow 
to the vanquished. Antiochus, first of all, became the victim of 
his defeat at Magnesia. Being bound by the late treaty to pay 
large sums of money to the Romans, when the time approached 
to fulfil his obligation, he found himself in great perplexity. His 
coffers were empty, and his resources considerably diminished ; 
in this embarrassment, he attempted to plunder by night a rich 
temple in the country of Elymais, but was discovered by the 
inhabitants and killed with all his followers (b. c. 187). 

This prince was otherwise deserving of praise for his humanity, 
clemency, and liberality. A decree ascribed to him, by which 
his subjects were not only permitted, but even commanded to dis- 
obey his orders, if these should be found contrary to law, showed 
that he had a high regard for justice. Till the age of nearly fifty 
years, he had behaved with such bravery, steadiness and applica- 
tion, as to succeed in most of his enterprises. But subsequently 
his prudence began to wane, and his prosperity decreased in the 
same proportion. His conduct in the late war against the Ro- 
mans, the practical disregard which he showed for the wise . 
counsels of Annibal, his overthrow in the battle of Magnesia, 
the ignominious treaty of peace which was forced upon him, and 
his disgraceful death which soon followed it, all greatly impaired 
and tarnished the lustre of his former actions. 



PHILIP, KING OF MACEDON.— b. c. 220—178. 

A vicissitude similar to that experienced by Antiochus, also 
happened to his contemporary, Philip, king of Macedon. This 
prince was the grandson of Antigonus Gonatas, and the imme- 
diate successor of Antigonus Doto. He displayed in his youth 
much activity, courage, prudence and moderation, owing to the 
care he took to secure and follow the advice of virtuous men, 
such as the celebrated Aratus. This conduct rendered him suc- 
cessful in various wars against his neighbors; but prosperity, as 
too often happens, made him proud, ambitious, and not less terri- 



B. c. 220—178. PHILIP OF MACEDON. 305 

blc to his friends than rash towards his enemies. For his own 
misfortune, certain flatterers induced him to form an alliance 
with Annibal against the Romans, about the time of the defeat 
of the latter in the battles of Thrasymenes and Cannae. 

As soon as the Romans were apprised of this treaty, they 
began to watch carefully all the motions of Philip. Still, as 
they were obliged to send the greater portion of their forces 
against the Carthaginians, they contented themselves, at first, 
with hindering this new foe from coming to Italy, and giving 
him enough of encumbrance at home to keep him at a distance. 
They acted with greater vigor on that side, when by the victory 
of Zama, they were freed from the alarms and perils of the Punic 
war. Their consul Quintius Flaminius, having crossed the 
Adriatic with a choice body of troops, advanced through a rug- 
ged country, and at length met the Macedonians near Scotussa 
in Thessaly. 

The two armies, consisting of about twenty-six thousand men 
each, were separated by hills called Cj/nosce^halee, from which 
the battle took its name. It happened that both Philip and 
Flaminius sent detachments, on the same day, to occupy the hills 
or to make discoveries ; these hostile parties having met on the 
heights, came to a close engagement, and as each of them suc- 
cessively received reinforcements, the action from a private en- 
counter, was soon changed into a general battle. The king 
evinced great resolution and courage, and, where he commanded 
in person, obtained a considerable advantage. But it was not 
the same every where. The entire overthrow of his left wing, and 
a vigorous charge made by the Romans on the rear of his phalanx, 
turned the day against him, and cost him one half of his army 
(b. c. 197). Terrified by this loss as well as by the presence 
of a victorious enemy, he asked for peace, and obtained it on 
condition that he would pay the sum of two thousand talents, 
deliver up his galleys, give his son Demetrius as a hostage, and 
evacuate all the Grecian cities that were garrisoned by his troops. 

The time had now come for the celebration of the Isthmian 
games. Flaminius assisted at them, together with an immense 
concourse of people, all anxious to learn the future destinies of 
Greece; for the terms of the treaty between the Romans and 
Philip were as yet but imperfectly known. When the multitude 
had assembled in the stadium or amphitheatre to see the games, 
a herald put an end to the public uncertainty, by proclaiming 
with a loud voice that the Roman senate and people, and Q. 
Flaminius, their general, after having vanquished the king of 
JMaeedon, restored to the Greeks their liberties and the free use 

2G* 



306 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part V. 

of their respective laws and customs. At these words, the 
whole assembly abandoned themselves to the liveliest trans- 
ports of joy, and burst into so loud and prodigious acclamations, 
that some ravens, which then happened to be flying over the shout- 
ing multitude, fell into the stadium. The crowd ran towards the 
Roman general to salute him as their deliverer, gave him their 
warmest thanks, kissed his hand, or threw garlands and crowns 
of flowers around him j nay, they carried the expression of their 
gratitude so far, as to put him in some danger of being suffo- 
cated.* 

Such was the result of the victory gained by Flaminius over 
Philip. Still, it is true that this conduct of the Romans towards 
the Greeks was not less the dictate of policy than of generous 
feeling. On the one hand, it obtained for Rome, amidst other 
nations, a reputation for extraordinary disinterestedness and mode- 
ration, highly favorable to her interests ; on the other, the power 
and influence of the Macedonian kings was annihilated through- 
out Greece, and the Grecian republics themselves, left to their 
own resources, might afterwards be easily controlled and even 
subdued, if they chanced to be engaged in a war against their 
actual deliverers. This indeed was understood at that very time 
by a few sagacious statesmen, and after .a short interval re- 
ally happened. But the people at large, instead of fearing any 
evil consequence, thought of nothing but how to enjoy the 
advantages of their present condition, and for these, they re- 
peatedly expressed to the Romans their unbounded admiration 
and gratitude. 

Far different reflections occupied the mind of Philip. He 
cherished a secret animosity against the Romans, and though 
he concealed it for a time, could hardly repress it when his affairs 
gave him some respite and greater hope of success. In the 
interim, his son Demetrius, who was a hostage at Rome, so 
completely won by his good qualities the esteem and affection of 
the senators, that they most honorably dismissed him to the 
court of his father. Still, these tokens of regard served only 
to render him odious in the sight of Philip, who considered 
the Romans as his greatest enemies. Another circumstance 
most unfavorable to this young prince, was the implacable 
jealousy of his half-brother Perseus : the latter had an intense 
desire to succeed his father on the Macedonian throne; well 
aware that the better claim of Demetrius, equally supported 
by the affection of the people and the favor of the Romans, 

*Livy, b. xxxiii, c. 33. Plutarch in_ Q. Flamin. 



B. c. 220—178. PHILIP OF MACEDON. 307 

would be an insuperable barrier to his ambition, be determined 
to remove him by artifice and intrigue. 

He availed himself of the first plausible opportunity to ex- 
ecute his dark designs. On a day of great festivity for the 
Macedonians, the army, divided into two bodies under the 
command of the two brothers, represented a battle, in which the 
body led by Demetrius obtained a decided advantage. This 
was keenly resented by Perseus. At night, both princes gave a 
repast to their respective partisans and friends: whilst joy and 
mirth reigned among the guests, Perseus sent a spy to hear what 
might be said at his brother's banquet. That spy happened 
to be discovered, and was ill-treated, outside of the hall, by four 
persons belonging to the party of Demetrius. The young prince, 
totally unaware of this incident, invited his guests to accompany 
him to the residence of his brother, in order to show their good 
feeling towards him, and to allay his displeasure, if he still 
entertained any. The proposal was readily accepted by all, 
except the four young men who had ill-treated the spy : fearing 
for themselves the same kind of reception which they had 
given to another, they concealed swords under their garments, to 
repel any attack that might be made. Unfortunately, this very 
circumstance was reported to Perseus, before the company arri- 
ved. He took occasion from it to deny them admittance, caused 
the doors of his house to be shut against them, and on the 
following day charged Demetrius, in presence of the king, with a 
deliberate design and attempt to deprive him of life. 

Philip, deeply afflicted at such a charge of a brother against a 
brother, summoned both princes before him in presence of a few 
trusty friends. After having bewailed his unhappy condition 
which obliged him, a sovereign and a father, to judge between his 
two sons, and pronounce one guilty of a projected murder, or the 
other of a dreadful* calumny, he listened to them both with 
great attention. Perseus, who spoke first, endeavored very art- 
fully to prove the charge which he had advanced; but De- 
metrius, although overwhelmed with grief, easily repelled it and 
vindicated his innocence. Seeing, however, that his affection for 
the Romans continued to render him an object of dislike and 
suspicion at court, he resolved to set out secretly for Italy; 
he was betrayed in this also, and saw his design turn against 
himself. 

In fine, a new contrivance of Perseus against his brother com- 
pleted the latter's ruin. This unfortunate prince was placed 
in a sort of confinement, and shortly after deprived of life, 
by the command, as it appears, of his own father. Philip after- 



308 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part V. 

wards discovered the innocence of Demetrius, and expired with the 
bitter regret of having so cruelly treated a guiltless son who ought 
to have been his successor, whilst he had spared and favored 
another, who alone was deserving of the severest punishment 
(b. c. 178). 



PERSEUS.— FALL OF MACEDON.— b. c. 178—148. 

Perseus, without having the natural abilities of his father, had 
inherited his animosity and hostile designs against the Romans : 
he spent the first years of his reign in making preparations for 
a new contest, and used every species of intrigue either to gain 
allies for himself, or to destroy those of Rome. After various 
recriminations and useless embassies, war at length was openly 
declared. During three years it scarcely produced any event of 
importance, except that, on one occasion, Perseus gained a con- 
siderable advantage over the Romans; still this action was far 
from being decisive. Hostilities continued for some time longer in 
a rather languishing manner, and it required the activity, courage 
and experience of the celebrated consul Paulus xEmilius, to pro- 
cure a speedy and happy termination of the war. 

The very beginning of his campaign, and the vigor of his 
operations, taught Perseus that he was now opposed by a more 
terrible enemy than he had hitherto encountered. The unhappy 
monarch himself, first of all, contributed by his avarice to 
the destruction of his fortunes. He had secured, by the prom- 
ise of a large sum, the assistance of twenty thousand Gauls 
stationed beyond the Danube; when they arrived near the 
frontier of Macedon, the unwary king, more inclined to keep his 
money than to fulfil his word, declined under various pretences 
to pay the stipulated amount. The Gauls became furious at this 
breach of faith: they laid waste a great part of the country 
whilst returning home, and Perseus lost, through his own fault, 
a large number of auxiliaries who might have been of very great 
service to him in time of danger. 

He himself must have been sensible of his imprudence, when 
the Romans, having crossed the passes of Mount Olympus, over- 
took him near Pydna. Here was fought the famous battle 
destined to crush the Macedonian power, though it seemed at first 
calculated to produce the contrary effect. At its very com- 
mencement, the Macedonian phalanx signalized itself among all 
the troops of the king, and for a time bade defiance to all 
the efforts of the Romans and their allies. iEmilius, advancing 



b. c. 178—148. PERSEUS, ETC. 309 

to the first ranks, found that the foremost men of that body had 
stuck the heads of their pikes into the shields of his soldiers, so 
that it was impossible for the latter to reach the enemy; and 
■when he saw the rest of the Macedonians join their bucklers 
close together, and present their long spears against his legions, 
the strength of such a rampart and the formidable appearance 
of such a front struck him with terror and amazement. He never 
indeed beheld a more terrific spectacle, and he often mentioned 
afterwards the impression which it made upon him ; however, he 
took care to show a pleasant and cheerful countenance to his 
troops, and even rode about, without either breast-plate or 
helmet. 

The Romans, animated by the presence and example of their 
general, made incredible exertions. They attempted to cut the 
pikes of the Macedonians asunder with their swords, to beat them 
back with their shields, or to turn them aside with their hands ; 
but the Macedonians, holding them steady with both hands, 
pierced the assailants through their armor. Thus the first 
line of the Romans was cut in pieces, and those behind began to 
give way. The consul, seeing this, rent his clothes through 
excess of grief; nay, he was almost reduced to despair, to find that 
his troops would no longer face that terrible phalanx, which, on 
account of the pikes that defended it on all sides like a rampart, 
appeared impenetrable and invincible; still as the unevenness of 
the ground and the large extent of the enemy's front would not 
permit their bucklers to be joined, so as to leave no interruption 
nor openings, he observed several' interstices in the Macedonian 
line. This circumstance suggested to him the happy idea of 
dividing his forces into platoons, and directing them to throw 
themselves into the openings of the phalanx. His orders were 
instantly and punctually executed. The Romans forced their 
way between the pikes, wherever there was an opening; which 
was no sooner done, than some took the enemy in flank, while 
others attacked them in the rear. 

By this manoeuvre the ranks of the phalanx were soon broken, 
and deprived of their principal strength, which depended on one 
combined effort. Yet, as the troops that composed it fought 
with great valor, a sharp conflict and dreadful carnage ensued. 
The contest, however, was now too unequal : most of the Mace- 
donians fell under the swords of the Romans; about twenty-five 
thousand of them were killed ; eleven or twelve thousand were 
taken prisoners; and, before night, the rest were driven from the 
field (B. c. 1G8). 

King Perseus, unworthy of so brave soldiers, had already 



310 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part V. 

fled with a considerable body of cavalry to Pella his capital. He 
soon left it, and went first to Amphipolis, and afterwards to Sa- 
mothrace, whence he intended to withdraw to a still greater dis- 
tance ; but he fell, with his whole family, into the hands of the 
consul, who conducted him to Rome to make him grace his con- 
queror's triumph. After this ceremony, so painful to his pride, 
he was placed in confinement, and though otherwise treated with 
humanity by the Roman government, could not bear his mis- 
fortune, but sunk under excess of grief. 

With Perseus fell the Macedonian kingdom, after it had lasted 
one hundred and fifty-six years from the death of Alexander the 
Great. 

Rome acted with moderation and generosity towards the van- 
quished nation; the Macedonians were declared free by their 
conquerors themselves, on condition that they should pay an 
annual tribute amounting to one-half of the revenue which they 
paid to their sovereigns. But new disturbances which arose in 
that country, gave occasion to the Romans to place it entirely 
under their control, and make it a Roman province (b. c. 148). 
About this time, also, the armies of the republic subdued Epirus 
and the whole of Illyria. 

EASTERN NATIONS, ESPECIALLY THE JEWS UNDER THE ASMO- 
NEANS OR MACHABEES.-b. c. 1G8— 158.* 

The Romans were thus rapidly advancing towards the subju- 
gation of the universe. What their armies did not achieve, was 
effected by their negotiations and political wisdom : in every part 
of the civilized world, they eagerly embraced every opportunity 
to establish or extend their influence, and to increase their repu- 
tation for justice and generosity, by taking the defence of the 
weaker against the stronger states. They had previously ac- 
cepted the guardianship of the young Ptolemy Epiphanes, king 
of Egypt, against his two powerful enemies, Philip of Macedon 
and Antiochus the Great, king of Syria. They now employed 
their assistance in behalf of the Egyptian court with still greater 
effect against Antiochus Epiphanes, the second successor of Anti- 
ochus the Great (b. c. 169). 

This prince had already made three successful campaigns in 
Egypt, and was now preparing to achieve the reduction of that 
kingdom, when he met near Alexandria a Roman embassy, with 
orders from the senate and people of Rome to desist from further 

* See Rollin's Ancient History, vol. viii and ix — Josephus, Jewish An- 
tiquities, b. xii and xiii — especially the two books of Machabees. 



b. c. 168—158. THE MACHABEES. 311 

hostilities. On the receipt of this mandate, the king said that he 
would consult with his friends and return an early answer. But 
this did not satisfy the lofty spirit of the Romans : Popilius 
Laenas, one of the ambassadors, indignant at such delay, drew 
with the rod which he held in his hand, a circle round Antiochus, 
and raising his voice summoned him to give his answer, before 
leaving the limits of that enclosure. Terrified by this summons, 
the king, after a moment's silence, promised to comply with the 
wishes of the senate. 

He withdrew therefore from Egypt, filled with secret rage at 
seeing himself forcibly dispossessed of a crown, which he had al- 
ready looked upon as his own. Unable to avenge himself on the 
Romans, the sole authors of his disappointment, he resolved to 
make the Jews who had in no manner offended him, feel the 
whole weight of his anger. In his march through Palestine, he 
detached twenty-two thousand men under the command of Apol- 
lonius, with orders to destroy Jerusalem. Two years before, a 
cruel slaughter had been committed in this unfortunate city, 
under the king's personal direction; he now ordered that those 
cruel scenes should be reiterated with increased fury. Apollo- 
nius took advantage of the circumstance of the Sabbath, during 
which all the people were peacefully engaged in religious worship, 
to let loose his soldiers upon them. In a few moments, every 
part of the town streamed with the blood of its butchered inhabi- 
tants. The city was afterwards plundered, and fired in several 
places. 

The temple and sanctuary were profaned, the other buildings 
demolished, and the ruins served to build a strong citadel, from 
which a well armed and provisioned garrison commanded the 
whole neighborhood, overawed the remaining Jews, and occa- 
sionally issued forth to kill those who dared approach the temple 
of God to offer him their adoration. 

Not satisfied with these cruelties, Antiochus published a 
decree, by which the several nations of his empire were com- 
manded, in the first place, to lay aside their ancient religion, and 
then to profess the same religion, and adore the same gods with 
the king. Although expressed in general terms, this decree was 
directed chiefly against the Jews, whose faith as well as nation 
Antiochus, in his impious rage, was determined to extirpate. 
The Gentiles and Samaritans obeyed with little reluctance ; even 
among the Jews, many were found to apostatize from their holy 
faith ) but many also generously resisted the king's edict, and 
disregarded the torments by which it was enforced. Among the 
latter, the virtuous old man Eleazar, and the mother with her 



312 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part V. 

seven sons commonly called Machabees, suffered deatli for this 
sacred cause with such alacrity and courage, as to deserve the 
same glory with the Christian martyrs. Others fled into the 
mountains and deserts in order to avoid the persecution. At the 
head of these noble fugitives was a family of heroes, Mathathias 
and his five sons, the most remarkable of whom were Simon, 
Jonathan, and especially Judas, surnamed Machabseus. Having 
assembled their friends and other zealous Jews, they formed a 
resolute though small band of warriors, and began to fight va- 
liantly for the defence of their people, their country, and their 
holy law, against unjust persecutors. Their first exertions had 
already proved successful, when Mathathias felt that the end of 
his life was fast approaching. Calling for his five sons, he ex- 
horted them to continue the great work which they had under- 
taken, appointed Judas the commander of their forces, and then 
died at a venerable old age, to the great affliction of all good and 
faithful Israelites. 

Judas Machabaeus had thus become the leader of the little 
army. He began immediately to fortify the cities, to rebuild the 
fortresses, to supply them with garrisons, and to deliver the 
country, wherever he went, from the yoke of its oppressors. 
Apollonius, the king's general in those parts, attempted to 
retrieve these losses j Judas not only conquered him, but put him 
to death, together with many of his troops. Seron made a simi- 
lar attempt, and was likewise defeated. 

When the news of these defeats reached Antiochus, he was so 
much exasperated, that he determined on the ruin of the whole 
Jewish nation ; but, as the state of his affairs obliged him to visit 
the provinces of Upper Asia, he intrusted the execution of this 
design to Lysias, a prince of the royal family, whom he" appointed 
governor of Syria, and temporary guardian of his son. Lysias at 
first sent into Palestine an army of forty-seven thousand men, 
commanded by Ptolemy, Nicanor, and Gorgias. These generals 
were so confident of the entire defeat of Judas, that they invited 
a multitude of merchants to accompany their army for the pur- 
pose of buying Jewish slaves at a low rate. 

Although the forces of Machabaeus scarcely equalled the sev- 
enth or eighth part of those of the enemy, he did not despond, 
but confiding in the divine protection, and inspiring his little 
band with the same confidence, he prepared fearlessly to encounter 
his numerous foes. As they had contrived an ambush for him, 
he turned it against themselves, attacked separately the two di- 
visions of their army when they least expected it, and threw 
them into irremediable confusion. Above nine thousand of them 



b c 1G8— 158. THE MACIIABEES. 313 

were slain, and the remainder, most of them wounded, fled with 
the utmost precipitation. 

Judas, who had wisely restrained his soldiers from gathering 
the spoils as long as the defeat of the enemy was incomplete, at 
length allowed them to plunder the camp, in which they found 
an immense booty. The merchants who had come to purchase 
the captives, were themselves taken with their riches, and sold. 
Greatly encouraged by this important success, and reinforced by 
the numerous soldiers whom it brought to their aid, the Jews set 
out to harass the rest of their enemies. As Timotheus and 
Bacchides, two lieutenants of Antiochus, were mustering fresh 
troops for the support of his interests in Judea, Machabaeus 
marched against them, defeated them both in a great battle, and 
killed twenty thousand of their men. 

The news of so many overthrows and losses threw Lysias into 
great perplexity ; in obedience however to the strict orders left 
by the king, he made immense preparations for a new campaign: 
he accordingly levied an army of sixty thousand foot and five thou- 
sand horse, all chosen troops, and putting himself at their head, 
marched into Judea. This formidable army encamped at Beth- 
sura, a city situated south of Jerusalem, and near the Idumasan 
frontier. Judas advanced against it with ten thousand soldiers, 
and confiding as usual in the- assistance of God, he engaged the 
enemy, killed five thousand of them, and put the rest to flight. 

Dismayed at the undaunted courage of the Jews, Lysias re- 
turned to Antioch, intending nevertheless to come and attack 
them again with still greater forces. Machabasus was thus left 
for a time undisputed master of the country. He took advantage 
of this favorable opportunity to recover the temple of Jerusalem 
from the Gentiles, and dedicate it again to the service of the true 
Grod, with solemn thanksgiving for the signal protection which 
the Almighty had lately granted to his people. 

About the same time, Antiochus was traversing the upper 
provinces of his kingdom, to levy tribute and collect large sums 
of money which the impoverished state of his treasury demanded. 
Having been informed that the city of Elymais in Persia, and 
especially its famous temple, contained a vast amount of gold, 
silver and valuable furniture, he endeavored to bring it into his 
possession; but he received from the inhabitants a repulse, as dis- 
graceful and unexpected as that sustained by his father Antiochus 
on a similar occasion. 

This mortification was increased by the sad intelligence that all 
his armies had been defeated in Judea. On the receipt of this 
news he began to retrace his steps, breathing vengeance against 

27 



314 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part V. 

the Jews, and -marching with all possible speed, that he might 
the sooner make Jerusalem the sepulchre of its inhabitants ; but 
he was himself about to become the victim of a more just and 
powerful avenger. Whilst he was venting his blasphemous rage, 
he felt himself invisibly struck by the hand of G-od, and seized 
with excruciating pains in the*bowels. His body moreover hap- 
pened to be dreadfully bruised by a fall from his chariot ; his flesh 
fell from him in pieces, or was eaten by swarms of worms, and 
the stench became intolerable to the whole army. Then it was 
that this wicked prince acknowledged, by an apparent though 
unavailing repentance, the justice of God's chastisements which 
lay heavy upon him. After taking measures and giving some 
orders for the regulation of the state during his son's minority, 
he died in a foreign land, a prey to agonizing tortures and grief* 
(b. c. 164). 

The death of Antiochus Epiphanes delivered the Jews from a 
cruel foe, but not from all their enemies. In compliance with 
the plans he had previously adopted, Lysias again invaded Judea 
at the head of about one hundred thousand men. At the 
approach of this formidable host, the Jews earnestly invoked the 
divine assistance, and it was shortly after strikingly manifested 
in their behalf : for, " when they were going forth together with 
a willing mind, there appeared at Jerusalem a horseman going 
before them in white clothing, with golden armor, shaking a 
spear/'f Encouraged by the celestial vision, they rushed upon 
their opponents with such lion-like courage, that twelve thousand 
six hundred of the enemy fell dead upon the field, many were 
wounded, and Lysias himself 'sought safety in a shameful flight. 

Shortly after this defeat, the young king, Antiochus Eupator, 
accompanied by the same IJysias, entered Judea with a still more 
numerous army, and notwithstanding some losses and the vigor- 
ous resistance of the Jews, his overwhelming numbers enabled 
him to advance as far as Jerusalem, which he closely besieged. 
Fortunately for that city, when it was in the greatest danger of 
being taken, some afflicting news which the king received from 
Syria, obliged him to depart, having previously concluded a peace 
equally honorable and necessary to the Jews. 

This peace, however, scarcely afforded any rest to Judas Mac 
habasus and his brave followers. As the country was likewise 

* Observe the striking analogy between the kind of death endured by 
Antiochus, and that of another barbarous persecutor of religion, Max- 
imian Galerius, mentioned in Modern History, pp. 95, 96. 

f 2 Mack xi, 9. 



B. c. 168—158. THE MACIIABEES. 315 

attacked by the neighboring tribes, the Ammonites, Iduniaeans, 
and others, he was obliged to pass his life, as it were, in one 
continued struggle for the deliverance of his people. But in all 
these trials he was well supported, on the one hand, by his cou- 
rage and piety, on the other, by the divine protection. Wherever 
he went, he spread terror among Ms enemies, took their cities or 
fortresses, routed their armies with great slaughter, and delivered 
the country from their invasion. One of his most astonishing 
campaigns was that against a general called Tiruotheus,* who had 
gathered under his standard no fewer than one hundred and 
twenty thousand infantry, besides two thousand five hundred 
cavalry. Judas, with only six thousand warriors, fearlessly 
attacked him, put thirty thousand of his troops to the sword, 
scattered the rest, and returning without loss of time, besieged and 
stormed the two strong cities of Carnion and Ephron, where an 
additional force of fifty thousand of the enemy was destroyed. 

The peace granted to the Jews by the Syrian court, was of short 
duration. This was owing to a sudden revolution which deprived 
Antiochus Eupator of his crown and life, and placed Demetrius 
Soter, his cousin, on the throne of Syria. The new sovereign 
was soon prevailed on by the enemies of Machabaeus to recom- 
mence hostilities; he ordered Bacchides, governor of Mesopotamia, 
to march immediately into Judea at the head of an army. 
Although Judas could not at first prevent the progress of the 
enemy, he finally baffled his efforts, as he did also those of another 
army, commanded by Nicanor. This general, exasperated by a 
former defeat, vented his fury in blasphemies against the 
Almighty and his temple at Jerusalem j for which he was soon 
punished — Judas engaged with him in a bloody battle, and of 
his army of thirty-five thousand men, not one escaped to carry 
the news of the defeat to Antioch. The body of Nicanor was found 
among the dead ; his right hand, which he had raised against the 
temple when he threatened to destroy it, and his head also, were 
cut off, and placed upon one of the towers of Jerusalem. 

Judas availed himself of the short respite which this victory 
afforded him, to send an embassy to Home. On the one hand, 
he saw himself continually attacked by all the forces of Syria, 
without being able to place any reasonable reliance on their trea- 
ties of peace ; on the other, he had been informed that the 
Romans, equally famous for their generosity and valor, were 
always ready to support weak nations against powerful and ainbi- 

* A different personage from Tiniotheus, a lieutenant of Antiochus, 
already mentioned. 



316 ANCIENT HISTORY. • Part V 

tious kings. This induced him to seek an alliance with the 
Roman people, in order to obtain their protection against the 
unjust attacks of the Syrians. His ambassadors were well re- 
ceived by the senate, and a decree was passed declaring the Jews 
friends and allies of Rome, and establishing a defensive treaty 
with them against their respective enemies. They even obtained 
a letter from the senate to King Demetrius, by which he was 
enjoined to desist from further hostilities against the Jews; but 
before the ambassadors returned, Judas Machabseus was dead. 

As soon as Demetrius heard of the defeat and death of Nicanor, 
he gave the command of a numerous army to Bacchides, and sent 
him again into Judea. When this general arrived near Jerusalem, 
the forces of Machab?eus did not exceed three thousand. Of these, 
many were so terrified by the number of the enemy, that they 
withdrew from the camp, leaving Judas only eight hundred sol- 
diers, and thus increasing the disproportion of forces from one to 
seven, which it was before, to one to twenty-eight. This unex- 
pected desertion, in the time of his greatest need, threw Judas 
into a momentary and painful dejection; resuming, however, 
his wonted courage, he fearlessly encountered the danger, and 
coming to battle, maintained the unequal contest nearly the 
whole day, with a valor, not only equal, but even superior to that 
of the most renowned Greeks and Romans. Nay, by feats of 
prodigious courage, he at one time broke and routed the stronger 
part of the Syrian army. But being simultaneously attacked in 
the rear and in front, he was at length overpowered by multitudes, 
and fell among heaps of the slain, thus crowning, by a glorious 
death, all his other noble and heroic deeds. Although his little 
army was forced to retire, they carried his body with them, and 
buried it in the sepulchre of his ancestors (b. c. 161). 

Intense was the affliction created in the whole people by the 
death of their invincible leader; for a long time, they made the 
air resound with these words : " How is the mighty fallen, that 
saved the people of Israel I" Disastrous however and irretriev- 
able as this loss appeared to the Jews, they were not entirely 
destitute of a remedy. Judas Machabasus left behind him, in 
the persons of his brothers Jonathan and Simon, two worthy 
successors of his power, and still more worthy heirs of his wis- 
dom, zeal, and courage. It continued indeed to cost them many 
toils, dangers and bloody battles, to defend their country against 
its numerous enemies; yet they finally achieved its deliverance 
from the yoke of the Gentiles. This happy event, although com- 
pleted some years later under Simon, may be referred, in a great 
measure, to the year B. c. 158, when Bacchides, unable any 



B.C. 149— 146. THIRD PUNIC WAR. 317 

longer to oppose the efforts of the Jews, made with them an 
honorable alliance, and withdrawing finally from Judea, allowed 
Jonathan to govern the country in peace. 



THIRD PUNIC WAR, AND DESTRUCTION OF CARTHAGE. 
b. c. 149—140. 

Whilst the Jews, favored by the Romans, were rising in 
strength, the Carthaginians, for a contrary reason, saw their 
power rapidly decline. Rome, notwithstanding the prodigious 
success that every where attended her arms, could not endure 
the sight of the prosperity of Carthage, a rival city which still 
contained seven hundred thousand inhabitants. For this reason, 
the Romans had constantly favored, though in an indirect way, 
the encroachments of Masinissa on the territory of the Cartha- 
ginians j and as the latter, being denied all satisfaction, took up 
arms against that prince, war was openly declared against them, 
under the plea that they had attacked an ally of the Roman re- 
public (b. c. 149). 

The two consuls, Manlius and Censorinus, were sent together 
on this expedition, with a powerful fleet and an army of eighty- 
four thousand men. Having landed on the African shore at a 
small distance from Carthage, they resorted first to a very un- 
generous means, that is, an equivocal treaty, to strip that city of 
its means of defence, and then confidently advanced against it to 
commence the regular operations of a siege. " But they met with 
much greater resistance than they had anticipated. The Cartha- 
ginians, exasperated in the highest degree, made bold and con- 
tinual sallies to repulse the assailants, to consume their machines 
by fire, and to harass their foragers. The Roman generals of 
the ensuing year had neither more ability nor more success ; they 
prosecuted the siege only in a slow and languishing manner, and 
were even worsted on several occasions. 

The intelligence of these events occasioned some alarm at Rome. 
The people began to doubt the success of the war, which in fact 
grew daily more uncertain, whilst the war itself assumed a higher 
degree of importance than it seemed to have in the beginning. 
In this state of uneasiness, the Romans placed their hopes for the 
future in a young man equally conspicuous for his family, his 
name, and his virtue. This was Scipio iEmilianus, by birth the 
son of Paulus ^milius the conqueror of Macedon, and by adop- 
tion the grand son of Scipio Africanus the conqueror of Annibal. 
Being appointed consul, though much under the age prescribed 



318 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part V. 

by law, ho took the command of the Roman troops near Carthage, 
and after restoring good order and discipline among them, so 
closely invested the city, that it soon became a prey to the most 
dreadful famine. A few vigorous assaults rendered him master 
of the wall and outward fortifications. 

This first success enabled him to advance towards the very 
centre of Carthage ; yet his progress in the streets was not suffi- 
cient to put him in possession of the place. The inhabitants de- 
fended themselves with the utmost obstinacy : they disputed every 
avenue, every house, and for six days in succession suffered unin- 
terrupted and incredible slaughter, rather than surrender them- 
selves. At last, fifty thousand persons, who had taken refuge in 
the citadel, accepted quarter, and were conducted under a strong 
guard into the country. But nine hundred Roman deserters, 
having no quarter to expect, set fire to a temple in which they 
had sought a temporary covert, and perished in the flames. 

The Romans caused the conflagration to extend to the other 
parts of the town, whilst they themselves were eager in plunder- 
ing it, and in securing as much booty as they could snatch from 
the ruins or from the fire. As for Scipio, their general, when he 
recollected the former glory and power of this famous city, the 
extent of its dominions and its great wealth, above all, when he 
reflected on the courage and magnanimity of its inhabitants, 
which made them, even when stripped of almost all resources, 
sustain for three whole years the hardships and calamities of a 
disastrous siege, he could not, it is said, refrain from tears at the 
unhappy fate of Carthage. Still, he literally obeyed the rigorous 
orders of his government, and caused the remaining buildings and 
fortifications to be entirely demolished. The whole adjacent coun- 
try was added to the dominions of Rome, and destined thenceforth 
to be under a Roman governor. 

Thus fell Carthage, the master-piece of African magnificence, 
the seat of commercial industry, the repository of wealth, and at 
the same time one of the greatest emporiums and one of the prin- 
cipal states of the ancient world. About a hundred years after 
its destruction, it was rebuilt by the orders, or according to the 
design, of Julius Csesar, and rose again, under the succeeding 
emperors of Rome, to be the capital of northern Africa, which 
title it retained seven hundred years longer ; but it was, at the 
close of that term, utterly destroyed by the Saracens, so that 
even its name and the vestiges of its existence are now hardly 
known in the country. 



b. c. 146. END OF GRECIAN INDEPENDENCE. 319 



END OF GRECIAN INDEPENDENCE, AND DESTRUCTION OF 
CORINTH.— b. c. 146. 

Such were also the destinies of Corinth, then the chief city of 
the Achaeans, whose destruction took place in the same year and 
in nearly the same circumstances with that of Carthage. 

The Achaean republic, rendered so famous by the wisdom of 
Aratus and the victories of Philopcemen, continued some time 
after them to be the first state of Greece. Sparta and Corinth 
belonged to it. Athens and Thebes * had no longer any political 
importance. The iEtolians, who acquired about this time a cer- 
tain celebrity, were nothing else than a race of wild and hardy 
warriors j the Achaeans alone, among all the Greeks, maintained 
a noble attitude, particularly under the wise and firm administra- 
tion of Lycortas, the father of Polybius the historian. But this 
prosperity came at last to an end. The avarice and rashness of 
their new leaders gave rise to many disturbances among them, 
and, when the Romans proffered their interference to settle the 
affairs of Peloponnesus, the Achaeans were imprudent enough to 
provoke their resentment. They even dared to resist by force a 
people with whom the mightiest nations of the world were unable 
to contend ; nor did a first defeat, inflicted on them by the prae- 
tor Metellus, remove their infatuation. 

The consul Mummius at last made his approach towards Corinth 
with the Roman legions. The Achaeans, on their part, boldly 
advanced to give him battle. They were so confident of victory, 
that they placed their wives and children on the summit of the 
neighboring hills, to be spectators of the combat j and they had 
prepared a large number of carts, to be loaded with the spoils 
which they would take from the enemy — so readily was success 
anticipated by this infatuated people. 

Never was there more groundless and rash confidence j a few 
moments were enough for the consul to break and rout the 
Achaeans on all sides. Diaeus, their general, and one of the chief 
instigators of this unhappy war, fled in despair to Megalopolis, 
where he put an end to his own life by poison. Many Corinth- 
ians likewise abandoned their city, to find refuge elsewhere. Mum- 
mius having entered Corinth, gave it up to be plundered by his 
soldiers; they slew every man whom they found in it, and sold 

* The city of Thebes, formerly destroyed by Alexander, had been 
rebuilt by Cassander (b. c. 317). 



320 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part V. 

the women and children. The whole city was then fired, and its 
walls were demolished. All this was done, in compliance with 
the senate's orders, to' punish the insolence of the Corinthians, 
who had lately presumed to violate the law of nations in the per* 
sons of four Roman deputies. This example of rigor so intimi- 
dated the other cities, that not one of them ventured to resist : 
the Achaean confederacy was buried in the ruins of Corinth, its 
capital, and Greece from that time was made a Pvoman province 
(b. c. 146). 

Mummius at his return obtained triumphal honors, and the 
surname of Acliaicus. During his triumph, he exhibited a large 
number of exquisite paintings and statues, which afterwards be- 
came one of the chief ornaments of Rome and other cities of 
Italy; but none of them entered the conqueror's house. For 
Mummius was a virtuous and disinterested citizen, as well as a 
brave warrior and an able general. So far had he preserved the 
simplicity of ancient times, that, while he directed the transpor- 
tation of so many master-pieces of art from Greece to Rome, he 
seriously stipulated with the carriers that, in case any accident 
should happen, they would be responsible for it, and retrieve the 
loss that might be sustained in this respect, by procuring other 
paintings and statues at their own expense. 

Polybius, the historian, whom we have just mentioned, was 
obliged to witness with his own eyes the calamities of his coun- 
try. He hacyately returned from Rome, where his wisdom and 
talents were held in high esteem by the first families of the 
republic, above all, by the family of Scipio iEmilianus. When 
the Roman commissioners, appointed to settle their recent con- 
quest, departed from Greece, they requested him to visit all the 
cities which had been subdued, and to adjust their differences, 
until they should be accustomed to their new laws and form 
of government. Polybius discharged this honorable commission 
with so much prudence, justice and mildness, that no further 
disputes arose in Achaia, either with regard to the government at 
large or the affairs of private individuals. In acknowledgment 
of so great a blessing, statues were erected to him in different places, 
and at the base of one of them was an inscription stating " that 
Greece would have committed no faults, if she had from the be- 
ginning listened to the counsels of Polybius, but that, after her 
faults, he alone had been her deliverer." 

After Polybius had established order and tranquillity in his 
country, he set out to rejoin Scipio iEmilianus at Rome, and 
then accompanied him to Numantia, at the siege of which he 
was present. When Scipio was dead, he returned into Greece; 



B. c. 146. END OF GRECIAN INDEPENDENCE. 321 

and having enjoyed there, for six years more, the esteem, 
affection and gratitude of his beloved citizens, he died at the age 
of eighty-two years, no doubt with the grief of seeing Achaia no 
longer an independent nation, yet with the consolation of having 
done whatever he could to alleviate its real or apparent mis- 
fortunes. 

The chief cause of the decline of Grecian power, and the fall 
of Grecian independence, was the discord which armed its differ- 
ent states against one another. As long as the Greeks were 
united, they overthrew and repelled numberless armies of in- 
vaders. But their patriotic spirit, constantly victorious over the 
attacks of barbarians, was subdued by their mutual jealousy: 
Sparta and Athens, in particular, engaged in long and bloody 
strifes for the support of their respective claims, and the only 
sure result which this conduct produced, was the diminution 
of their strength and national resources. The Persians, to whom 
they had proved formidable enemies, sought to weaken them 
more and more by encouraging division among them, favoring 
sometimes the one, sometimes the other party. The kings 
of Macedon also skilfully availed themselves of the same cir- 
cumstance, to acquire a predominant influence among the Greeks. 
In fine, what the Persians had attempted, what the Macedonians 

had begun, the subjugation of Greece, was achieved by the 

Romans; and this famous country, like every other part of the 
civilized world, was at length absorbed in the Roman republic. 

Greece however, even under her conquerors, preserved a kind 
of sovereignty of which they could not deprive her, and to 
which even themselves rendered implicit homage. She con- 
tinued to be the teacher of sciences and of the fine arts, and the 
model of refined taste in the productions of human genius. It 
was to an assiduous study of the Greek language and Grecian 
literature that Rome was indebted for the many accomplished 
orators, historians and poets, whose writings shed so much lustre 
on the Roman name, and rendered the Augustan age equal in 
many respects to the age of Pericles. 



PART VI. 



FROM THE END OF THE PUNIC WARS AND OF GRECIAN INDEPENDENCE, 
OR THE DESTRUCTION OF CARTHAGE AND CORINTn (b. C. 146), TO 
THE BATTLE OF ACTIUM AND CHANGE OF THE ROMAN COMMONWEALTH 
INTO AN EMFIRE (b. C. 81). 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE PRODIGIOUS INCREASE OF ROMAN 

POWER, AND ON THE CAUSES WHICH LED TO THE CHANGE 

OF THE COMMONWEALTH INTO AN EMPIRE. 

No one can read the history of ancient times, without being 
struck with surprise at the sight of a nation constantly ad- 
vancing for more than seven hundred years, in strength, power, 
glory, and extent of dominion, till it obtained at length the 
command of the world. This nation was the Roman people. 
There was no retrograde movement in their designs, nor any 
real delay in their progress. From an obscure settlement on the 
banks of the Tiber, they rose at first gradually, and afterwards 
by gigantic steps, to universal domination. This fact, one of the 
most important in the history of mankind, is well calculated 
to interest the reader, and to kindle in him a desire to know 
by what means it was accomplished. 

In the first place, we must acknowledge that the Providence of 
God was the primary cause of Roman greatness and prosperity. 
Almost from the beginning of their national existence, the 
Romans were conspicuous for many noble qualities : during 
several centuries, an honorable poverty and simplicity of man- 
ners, frugality, sobriety, courage, patriotism, disinterestedness, 
respect for law, fidelity to social and domestic duties,* etc. were 

* Divorce was not of frequent occurrence among the Romans till the 
latter times of the republic, when corruption of manners had already 
made fearful progress. But it was not so in the preceding ages : five 
hundred years elapsed after the building of the city, before any divorce 
took place in Rome; the first of all occurred in the year B. c. 231. 
And still the Romans were no more than a heathen people. What 
a lesson, and what a sad rebuke for some Christian nations ! 
322 



CAUSES OF ROMAN TOWER, ETC. 323 

virtues of no rare occurrence among them; witness the conduct 
of Cincinnatus, Regulus, Fabricius, Curius, the Fabii, the 
Scipios, and many others. Yet, as these virtues, however praise- 
worthy, had no other foundation than human and natural motives, 
and were even often found by the side of harshness, vanity, ambi- 
tion, or some other vice, they could not deserve a supernatural 
reward from the hands of the Sovereign Judge. But they seem- 
ed to entitle the people who practised them for so long a period, 
to a temporal recompense above other nations; and this was, in 
effect, the reward which heaven granted to the Romans, that is, 
the empire of the world. 

The course of events was so disposed by Divine Providence 
in their behalf, that they were never attacked by too many 
enemies at once, but sometimes by one, and sometimes by 
another, in a kind of regular succession, and just when they 
themselves were possessed of adequate means either to defeat 
each attack, or to retrieve their losses, even with increased ad- 
vantage. As an exemplification of the first case, the reader may 
recollect that they had to fight Antiochus the Great, only after 
the war against Philip of Macedon Was prosperously ended, and 
that the Macedonian war itself did not take place, till the 
greatest danger created by Annibal no longer existed. As 
an instance of the second, it will be enough to produce the 
struggle of Rome against the Gauls. On one occasion, after the 
disastrous battle of Allia and the burning of the city by the 
Gauls (b. c. 390), God gave to the Romans the great Camillus, 
then an exile, to effect their happy deliverance. In another great 
emergency (b. c. 225), when a powerful host of the same nation 
were rapidly advancing towards Rome and conquering the troops 
who opposed their passage, the armies of the two consuls arrived 
at the same time, and without previous concert, from different 
points, and overtook the invaders near Telamon. The Gauls, 
thus hemmed in between two Roman armies, and compelled 
to fight on such unfavorable ground, were entirely defeated, and 
Rome was saved from their invasion. 

Thus did Almighty God, in his just and all-wise Providence, 
watch over the safety of the Romans, remove obstacles from their 
way and facilitate their progress, till they reached the summit of 
human glory and prosperity. This was the recompense which 
he granted to their moral good works and civil virtues, as St. 
Augustine observes in many passages of his writings.* 

As to the secondary causes, first of the greatness and power of 

*-E. g.De Cioilale Dei, lib. v, c. xii, xv et xviii ; and Epist.cxxxvniad 
Marcellvnum. nos 1G and 17. 



324 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VI. 

Rxmie, and secondly of its subsequent decline as a republic j we 
shall find them both in the spirit and manners which distinguished 
the Romans at the various periods of their, existence.* 

Among all the nations of the ancient world, the Roman people 
were, beyond comparison, the loftiest in their sentiments and the 
boldest in their enterprises; the most prudent in council, the 
most steady in conduct, and the wisest in political maxims ; the 
most laborious, indefatigable, courageous and patient; the most 
affectionate to their country ; the most jealous of their liberty, and 
yet the most docile and submissive to their leaders and magistrates. 

This reunion of different and apparently opposite qualities 
produced, on the one hand, the best sort of soldiers, and on the 
other, the most regular, consistent, firm and sagacious policy that 
ever existed. 

To speak first of the Roman troops, it is manifest that, being 
composed of men remarkable for their strength, valor, patriotism, 
and all their habits of labor and obedience, they could not fail to 
be excellent. When headed by skilful generals, as was commonly 
the case, they might justly be looked upon as invincible. 

The laws of military discipline were strict, and enforced with 
unflinching severity. Life was often at stake, not only for hav- 
ing deserted or fled and thrown away one's arms, but also for* 
having gone forward and commenced to fight without the gene- 
ral's command. Victory itself was dangerous, and sometimes 
proved fatal to those who obtained it without superior orders. 
Such as surrendered to the enemy, or suffered themselves to be 
taken prisoners instead of fighting to the last for their country, 
if no extraordinary circumstance pleaded in their behalf, were 
thought unworthy of relief, and ceased to be reckoned as members 
of the republic. Thus for instance, after the battle of Cannae, 
when Rome, exhausted by the severest losses, stood most in need 
of soldiers to defend her very existence, the senate chose to arm 
eight thousand slave's, rather than redeem eight thousand legion- 
aries who had surrendered to the Carthaginians. In this urgent 
crisis, it was more strictly than ever enforced as an inviolable 
law, that a Roman soldier should conquer or die. 

With courage and activity, the Romans joined an inventive 
genius and great proficiency in the science of war. The improve- 
ments which they did not find out themselves, they readily 
borrowed from their neighbors, and even from their enemies : 

* Most of the following remarks are taken from Bossuet's Discourse 
on Universal History, part iii, c. G ; Rollin, Traite des etudes, vols iii and 
iv; — Ferguson, History of the proyress and termination of the Roman Re- 
public; — Montesquieu, Grandeur et decadence des Romains. 



CAUSES OF ROMAN POWER, ETC. 325 

thus they learned from the sight of a Carthaginian galley, how 
to build vessels fit for war; from Pyrrhus,they took the art of 
encampments in which that prince excelled, and to it they them- 
selves added the salutary practice of fortifying their camp with 
intrcnchments and ditches, although the army should have to 
stay in it only one night. In, a word, they adopted for their own 
use whatever they saw best in others, and derived from all nations 
the means to subdue them all. The mightiest states and the 
most warlike tribes were thus successively compelled to yield to 
their efforts. Rome triumphed over courage in the Gauls ; over 
courage and discipline in the Greeks ; over courage, discipline, 
and the most refined skill in Annibal; finally, such were her 
victories and conquests, that no nation ever surpassed or^equalled 
the Romans in military glory. 

But, as it is not sufficient for the prosperity of a nation to have 
brave troops and able generals, unless there be also a wise gov- 
ernment, we should also consider with great attention, the char- 
acter, views and policy of the Roman senate. 

Never was there an assembly in which, for a long course of 
ages, objects of public administration were discussed with greater 
maturity, foresight, wisdom, concord, and zeal. Here were 
faithfully preserved the ancient maxims of the commonwealth. 
Here were contrived the best schemes for the welfare and glory 
of the state. What should appear still more admirable, was their 
conduct in times of great adversity or peril; through aloftiness 
of mind quite characteristic of the Roman people, their senate 
never assumed a more threatening attitude, never adopted more 
vigorous measures, than under such circumstances. Weak coun- 
sels were not so much as listened to, and the senators and officers 
of state showed themselves more firm, even after the most disas- 
trous defeat, than after a decisive victory. 

Let the reader call to mind the time in which the republic, 
still weak and in its infancy, was distracted at home by the in- 
flammatory speeches of the plebeian tribunes, and attacked in the 
field by an illustrious and angry exile at the head of a powerful 
army of the Volsci ; it was in this terrible situation that the 
Roman senate appeared most intrepid. The Volsci, ■ always 
defeated before, but now constantly victorious under Coriolanus, 
were threatening Rome with the most serious evils, if their ^fbti- 
tion of certain rights and privileges was not granted. The city 
had no sufficient force to oppose to the enemy. Every thing was 
to be feared J still the senate issued this astonishing decree, that 
nothing should be yielded to a threatening foe, nor any treaty 
whatever concluded with him, till he should have withdrawn his 

28 



326 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VI. 

armies from the territory of the republic. They acted in like 
manner towards Pyrrhus j and, still more resolute towards Anni- 
bal, they would not so much as receive a deputy sent by this great 
general to make overtures of peace after his victory at Cannas. 

It was therefore a fundamental principle of Roman policy, 
never to make any concession to a victorious enemy. " Other 
nations, when in distress, could weigh their sufferings against the 
concessions which they were required to make ; and among the 
evils to which they were exposed, preferred what appeared to be 
the least. The Romans alone spurned the advances of a victo- 
rious enemy ; were not to be moved by sufferings ; and, though 
they cautiously avoided difficulties that were likely to surpass 
their strength, did not allow it to be supposed that they were 
governed by fear in any case whatever. They willingly treated 
with the vanquished, and were ready to grant the most liberal 
terms, when the concession could not be imputed to weakness or 
fear. By such free and unforced concessions, indeed, they estab- 
lished a reputation for generosity, which contributed no less than 
their valor to secure the dominion they acquired. "*, 

The conduct of the Roman senate was not less admirable 
towards their fellow-citizens, than steady and firm towards 
foreign enemies. The senators often evinced towards the people 
a truly parental condescension. Among numerous facts of this 
nature, we may adduce the liberal and humane decree, by which, 
in a time of great necessity, the leaders of the government not 
only imposed a higher tax upon themselves than upon the other 
Romans, as was commonly the case, but even released the poor 
citizens from all taxation, and said that the latter did enough for 
the service of the republic by their labor and the care of their 
families. These marks of disinterested kindness quite enraptured 
the minds of the people, and rendered them more than ever 
determined to do and suffer every thing for the service of so 
generous a country. 

The government of Rome, whose approval was of itself a re- 
compense, knew well how to bestow praise or blame, as circum- 
stances required. Immediately after a battle, the consuls and 
other generals assembled the army, and distributed among the 
officers and soldiers the rewards and congratulations, and some- 
tinro the reproaches, which they deserved; but they themselves 
generally waited for the decision of the senate, to know whether 
they should enjoy, or not, the honors of a triumphal entry into 
Rome. Praises were highly valued, because given after mature 

* Ferguson, b. ii, c. 2. 



CAUSES OF ROMAN POWER, ETC. 327 

deliberation ; and reproaches were greatly apprehended, because 
addressed to sensible and lofty minds. The fear of military chas- 
tisements kept the Roman soldier within the bounds of duty, 
whilst the sense of national glory, and rewards properly distri- 
buted, raised him, as it were, above himself. 

A nation composed of citizens and magistrates, generals and 
soldiers of this description, is conscious of its incomparable 
strength, never yields to despondency, and never believes itself 
devoid of resource. Hence the Romans stood undismayed, when 
Porsenna confined them within the walls of Rome; when the 
Gauls, after burning the city, closely besieged them in their last 
refuge, the capitol ; when Pyrrhus terrified them by the sight of 
his elephants, and defeated their legions ; and when Annibal, not 
to mention his previous victories over them, destroyed in the 
battle of Cannae the most numerous and gallant army that they 
had ever equipped. 

On the last mentioned occasion, the consul Terentius Varro, 
whose temerity had occasioned so signal a defeat, was received 
at Rome with great honors and public thanks, merely because in 
this dreadful disaster he had not despaired of the commonwealth. 
The senate redoubled its energy ; the people took courage ; new 
levies of troops were made, who fought like veterans ; in a short 
time, Rome regained her ascendancy ; and Annibal, successful 
as he had hitherto been, and formidable as he continued to be, 
could not resist her efforts. This great man, weakened by his 
own victories, did not receive from his country the same support 
which Rome gave to her vanquished generals ; he was at length 
entirely defeated by Scipio, and with him fell the glory and power 
of Carthage. 

Such was the fruit of Roman constancy, and in this manner 
did the Romans advance towards the conquest of the whole world. 
It is true that they from that time joined with courage and 
patience, a variety of means less just or less honorable : the splen- 
dor of their past success increased their ambition, and thirst after 
new glory and advantages frequently rendered them ungenerous. 
Such in particular was their conduct towards Carthage, Greece, 
and the last Macedonian kings. From this time especially, they 
applied themselves, on the one hand, to gain and secure allies, 
and on the other, either by artful negociations or by open force, 
to disunite and weaken their enemies. Hence, indeed, no one 
should be surprised to see them, for some time longer, advance- 
with rapid strides in the career of conquest ; being now upheld 
by so much strength already acquired and so many means of fu- 
ture progress, they subdued powerful kingdoms with even greater 



328 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VI 

facility than they formerly conquered villages. But this height 
of prosperity soon produced a fatal reaction. Its effect on the 
nation at large, on the private citizens in particular, and on the 
magistrates, officers and leaders of the state, inflicted a mortal 
wound on the primitive spirit of the commonwealth, and prepared 
by degrees its change into an empire. 

When the republic, says Sallust, had become prosperous 
by industry and justice; when powerful kings had been con- 
quered in war, and numerous nations subdued; when Carthage, 
the rival of Rome, had ceased to exist, and all seas and lands 
had passed under the Roman sway : a deplorable change began 
to manifest itself in the manners of the whole nation. Men, 
whom neither hardships, nor dangers, nor adversities, had been 
able to overcome, were vanquished by repose and wealth. Am- 
bition and avarice, the fatal source of all evils, grew in proportion 
to the extent of the empire :* avarice expelled fidelity, honesty, 
and other virtues, substituting in their stead pride, contempt of 
religion, extortion, and wide-spread venality ; ambition introduced 
fraud and perfidy, afterwards party spirit, dissension, proscription, 
and bloodshed. 

To the private citizens, the increase of territory and the 
conquests made by the state became the source of ruinous 
corruption. The treasures of the subdued provinces began to 
flow incessantly into Rome, and filled the coffers of private 
individuals, as well as those of the commonwealth. When there 
was no longer any peril threatening their prosperity, the Roman 
population, now recruited in a great measure from emancipa- 
ted captives or slaves, became almost ungovernable, indolent, and 
eager, as it were, for nothing but gratuitous distribution of corn 
and the games of the circus. f Their affection was confined 
to those persons who gratified them by liberal gifts and by 
the frequency of public exhibitions, such as that of gladiators or 
combatants fighting for the barbarous diversion of the people. 
Besides these disorders, the former feuds between the patricians 
and plebeians, which had been suspended by the importance 
of foreign events, were renewed with increased animosity; and 
there needed but a spark to produce a dreadful conflagration 
in the very centre of the republic. 

In fine, the offices of the state, the command of the armies, and 
the government of the provinces, as they now led their possess- 
ors to great fortune, began also to be coveted and sought with 

* Primo pecuuioe, deinde imperii cupido crevit; ea quasi materies 
omnium malorum fuere. — Sallust. Catilin. c. x. 
f Panem et circenses. — Juvenal, Sat. x, 1. 81. 



b. c. 153—133. ROMANS IN SPAIN. 329 

the greatest avidity. Instead of the former illustrious men who 
strove only for the palm of merit in the service of the common- 
wealth, men of a factious spirit arose, who contended for the 
greatest share of its spoils ; sacrificing the public good to private 
interests and animosities, they endeavored, by every means 
in their power, by bribery, intrigue, or violence, to draw the 
people and soldiers to their side, and make them subservient 
to the views of their lawless ambition. Accordingly, Rome was 
exposed during this period to the constant danger of dissensions 
and wars between her own citizens, till some daring, ambitious 
and uncommonly skilful leader might prevail over all his 
competitors, and become absolute master of the state. 

This was, at the epoch which our narrative has reached, so 
manifestly the tendency of affairs at Rome, that Polybius, the 
historian, who lived at that time, foresaw and announced the 
approaching change of the Roman republic into a monarchy.* 
The recital of the ensuing events will plainly show the depth 
and correctness of his observation, while it will impart to the 
reader a knowledge of the conquests by which Rome completed 
the formation of her empire. 



AFFAIRS OF THE ROMANS IN SPAIN.— b. c. 153—133. 

Of all the countries which the Romans subdued, none offered 
them a more determined and protracted resistance than Spain. 
At the very epoch of their success in Greece and Africa, they 
met with a most terrible opposition from the Spanish tribes. 
On the one side, the Lusitanians, headed by Viriatlrus, on 
the other, the Numantines, often defeated them, and covered 
their generals with disgrace and shame. This contest was 
carried on for about twenty years, with some short intervals 
of repose, but still with extreme animosity; nor could it be 
otherwise brought to a termination, than by the death of Viria- 
thus and the entire destruction of the city of Numantia. 

This Viriathus was a Lusitanian, of low birth, but of lofty 
sentiments, possessing great energy of soul and an uncommon 
share of natural abilities. Having escaped from a dreadful 
massacre of the inhabitants of his district ordered by a Roman 
praetor, he became, from a hunter and shepherd, the chief leader 
of his exasperated countrymen. Either by open force or skilful 
stratagem, he frequently overcame the armies sent against 
him from Rome under the command of praetors and consuls : on 
*Polybius, b. vi, Extracts 1 and 3. 
28* 



330 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VI. 

one occasion particularly, with only six thousand followers, 
he defeated an army of nearly twenty thousand men, many 
of whom were killed. Viriathus, it is true, was himself occa- 
sionally defeated ; yet, he never ceased to be as formidable to the 
Romans by his valor, as he was endeared to his soldiers by 
his moderation, disinterestedness and generosity. This hero, 
after having resisted the attacks of Rome for ten years, at length 
fell a victim to an odious treason contrived by a Roman consul, 
and was basely assassinated in his own camp and during his 
sleep (b. c. 140). 

The death of Viriathus ended the war against the Lusitanians, 
but not the Numantine war, which, on the contrary, gave for 
several years longer immense trouble and vexation to the Ro- 
mans. Those generals who were successively appointed to 
conduct it, either disgusted the natives by their breach of faith, 
or ruined their own troops by their imprudence. The city 
of Numantia alone, inconsiderable in itself, but remarkable for 
the courage of its inhabitants, withstood and baffled, during 
several years, all the efforts of these conquerors of the world. 
The assailants were often repelled with great loss, and compelled 
to abandon or interrupt the siege. It once happened that only 
four thousand Numantines put to flight a consular army of 
twenty thousand men, and, closely surrounding them in a 
narrow defile, obliged their leader, the consul Mancinus, to 
conclude a treaty of peace equally necessary to his troops and 
dishonorable to the Roman name. 

The senate and the people of Rome were afflicted and ashamed 
to see their armies constantly defeated by an enemy compar- 
atively so weak and so inferior in number. They at last de- 
termined to select a general both willing and able to retrieve 
the honor of the republic. The eyes of all were directed to 
Scipio iEniilianus, the conqueror of Carthage ; he was therefore 
appointed consul, and set out for Spain. Here he found the 
army without subordination and discipline, and given up to 
luxury, indolence and licentiousness. The consul immediately 
understood that, before attempting to fight the enemy, he must 
restore order, and effect a thorough reformation among his 
own troops. He commenced this necessary work by removing 
from the camp whatever savored of effeminacy or mere comfort, 
and confined the soldiers to the plain necessaries of life. He 
afterwards compelled them to make long marches, each soldier 
carrying his baggage, his arms, his provision of corn for fifteen 
or twenty days, and seven stakes for making intrenchments. At 
other times, for the mere purpose of inuring them to labor 



b. c. 135—132. INSURRECTION IN SICILY. ' 331 

and fatigue, he required them to dig the ground, build walls and 
erect palisades, which he caused a moment after to be demol- 
ished: "Let them," said he, "be covered with mud, since they 
dare not be covered with the blood of the enemy."* 

In a short time, the condition of the army became entirely 
different from what it was before. The soldiers seemed to have 
been changed into other men, and they who formerly could 
not bear the sight or voice of the Numantines, were now ready 
to fight them with advantage in the open field. Scipio ap- 
proached Numantia, and surrounded it with a line of intrench- 
ments composed of a ditch and wall flanked with towers. Want 
of provisions was soon felt in the city ; it gradually became 
terrible, and made so frightful ravages among the unfortunate 
inhabitants, that, after having exhausted all the means of 
support which necessity can suggest, they at last fed on human 
flesh. Starvation and the usual train of attendant evils had 
so far emaciated them, that they looked no longer like men, 
but like walking and ghastly skeletons. Finally, not to outlive 
their "freedom, they killed one another : yet, a few among them, 
of less desperate feelings, surrendered to the Romans at dis- 
cretion. Scipio reserved fifty of them for his triumph, sold 
the rest, and levelling their city to the ground, distributed 
the lands which had belonged to it among the neighboring tribes 
(b. C. 133). Although the Spanish peninsula was not yet 
entirely subdued, still the capture and destruction of Numantia 
firmly established the power of the Romans in that country. 
Shortly after, their legions, having completed the reduction 
of northern Italy by the defeat of the Ligurians, crossed the 
Alps and subdued likewise the southern part of Gaul, where 
they founded the cities of Aix and Narbonne. 



INSURRECTION IN SICILY.— b. c. 135—132. 

"Whilst the Romans extended their conquests on different 
sides, they were very near losing the most ancient and valuable 
of their provinces, the island of Sicily. A vast number of slaves 
were engaged in cultivating, for the profit of Rome, that 
fertile and extensive territory, which was justly considered the 
granary and, as it were, the nurse of the commonwealth. These 
slaves, exasperated by the ill-treatment inflicted on them by 
their masters, revolted against them and flew to arms in every 

*Luto inquinari, qui sanguine nollent, jubebantur. — Florus, Epitome t 
b. ii. c 18. 



332 x ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VI. 

part of the island. They chose for their chief leader a man 
called Eunus, a native of Syria, who took the insignia of royalty 
together with the name of Antiochus. His army rose in a short 
time to seventy thousand men; and it is thought, besides, 
that the total number of revolted slaves in Sicily was not 
less than two hundred thousand. 

Thus organized, the insurgents committed frightful cruelties and 
depredations throughout the island. They conquered the Roman 
troops who attempted to stop their progress, and defeated four 
praetors in succession; so that it became necessary to send 
consular armies in order to suppress the revolt. After an 
undecisive campaign under the consul Fulvius, his successor, 
Calpurnius Piso, gave a severe check to the rebels near Messina. 
Still it was only a third consul, P. Rupilius, who succeeded 
in terminating the war by destroying great numbers of them, 
capturing their fortified places, and putting to death their 
principal leaders. 

Rupilius made it the chief object of his care, to leave in Sicily 
no vestige of the late insurrection. With a body of chosen 
troops, he went through the island, and having entirely pacified 
it, made regulations which greatly pleased the people, and were 
regarded as the basis of public tranquillity (b. c. 132). 



DISTURBANCES EXCITED BY THE GRACCHI.— b. c. 133—121. 

The destruction of Numantia, and the close of the war 
against the revolted slaves in Sicily, coincided with the begin- 
ning of the civil wars in Rome. Hitherto the warmest contests 
between the patricians and plebeians had been carried on, and 
their differences adjusted, without resorting to arms ; the ani- 
mosity of the parties did not go beyond a certain limit, and 
either the condescension of "the senate or the moderation of 
the people prevented the effusion of blood. But we have now 
reached the period when ambition, interest and jealousy, con- 
cealed under an apparent zeal for the public good, prevailed over 
true patriotism, wise counsels and moderate government. In- 
sidious and illegal attacks on one side, extreme measures and 
violent remedies on the other, gave rise to those bloody dis- 
sensions which, being often renewed with increased animosity, 
terminated in the downfall of the republic. 

There existed an ancient agrarian law forbidding any Roman 
to possess more than five hundred acres of land, and it was also 
an ancient custom to distribute a part of the conquered tor- 



i). c. 133—121. THE GRACCHI. 333 

ritories among the poor citizens. But these regulations had 
not been enforced for some centuries, and the wealthy fam- 
ilies of Rome continued with impunity to enlarge their estates, 
which they caused to be cultivated by slaves ; whereas the lower 
classes of the people had neither land enough nor sufficient 
lucrative employment to provide for their support. This in- 
equality of fortune appeared to many persons an intolerable 
disorder, and one, too, peculiarly shocking in a republic. An 
attempt to suppress it by the revival of the agrarian law, was 
made by two illustrious brothers, Tiberius Gracchus and Caius 
Gracchus, who, besides being allied by birth and matrimonial 
connexions with the first families of Rome, were still more 
commendable for their talent, eloquence, courage and liberality. 
The Gracchi were the sons of Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, 
who, though once raised to the censorship, twice to the consu- 
late, and twice honored with a triumph, yet derived still greater 
dignity from his virtues. There had always existed an op- 
position between him and the family of the Scipios : but when 
both Publius and Lucius Scipio were persecuted by a powerful 
faction at Rome, Sempronius Gracchus had the generosity to 
declare himself in their favor and openly to take their defence, 
even against the tribunes his colleagues. It is believed that 
to his conduct on this occasion he was indebted for his subsequent 
alliance with their illustrious family; for towards the close 
of the life of that Scipio who conquered Annibal, he married 
Cornelia, Scipio's daughter, thus throwing new lustre around his 
own name. He died with a well deserved reputation for wisdom 
and virtue, and had a statue erected in his honor. 

Cornelia, being left a widow, devoted her whole attention to 
the management of her house and the education of her chil- 
dren. Two of them, Tiberius and Caius, the objects of the 
present section, so faithfully corresponded to the cares of their 
mother, that though they manifested the happiest genius and 
disposrtion, it was thought they owed still more to education 
than to nature. Hence they became the peculiar object of Cor- 
nelia's glory and pride, as she on one occasion forcibly manifest- 
ed in a conversation with a Campanian lady. This lady having 
first, with much self-complacency, laid her diamonds, pearls, 
and other precious jewels before the eyes of Cornelia, beg- 
ged that she might see those of Cornelia herself. The latter, 
instead of answering, turned the conversation to some other 
object, till her sons returned from school. When they entered 
the room of their mother; "these," said she to the Campanian 
lady, "are my jewels and my ornaments :" — Words truly ad« 



334 ANCIENT HISTORY. Pari VI. 

mirable, and containing a most important instruction for all 
mothers and children. 

The two brothers became eminent orators, though there was a 
great dissimilarity both in their delivery and their language. 
The delivery of Caius was extremely energetic, and calculated to 
produce terror; that of Tiberius was milder, and tended to 
excite emotion. Likewise, the language of Caius was splendid 
and vehement; that of Tiberius, chaste and persuasive, and this 
difference in their oratory seems to have arisen from the differ- 
ence of their tempers. Tiberius was mild and gentle; Caius 
was high spirited and uncontrolled, insomuch that he would often, 
in addressing the people, be carried away by the vehemence 
of his feelings, exalt his voice above the regular pitch, indulge in 
strong expressions, and, hurried along, as it were, by the fire of 
action, would move from one end of the rostrum to the other. 
To guard against excess, he ordered his servant Licinius, a 
judicious man, to stand behind him during his harangues to 
the people, with a flageolet, and whenever he found him straining 
his voice or inclined to anger, to give him a softer key. This 
was sufficient to make him immediately abate the violence of 
both his action and language, and to resume a natural tone. 

Such were the illustrious brothers Tiberius and Caius Grac- 
chus. Their natural dispositions and mental acquirements added 
to their virtues, liberality, courage, temperance, etc. seemed 
to prognosticate in behalf of Borne a long series of great and 
important services. Unfortunately, these hopes were blasted by 
the nature of the course which they thought proper to adopt 
and which they too obstinately pursued. 

The design in behalf of the poor citizens had every appear- 
ance of humanity and equity; still, in other points of view, 
it implied a great abuse of power. It tended to nothing less 
than to undermine the general security of property, by attacking 
possessions which, however unlawful they may have been in 
their origin, had quietly passed, through a long series of "ages, 
from the former to the present owners by way of inheritance, 
dowry, or purchase made in good faith. To restore estates 
of this description to their original destination, was manifestly to 
introduce confusion and trouble into the bosom of innumerable 
families, and strangely attempt to enrich one portion of the 
citizens at the expense of the other. Moreover, it cannot 
be denied that the Gracchi endeavored to carry out their views, 
sometimes by illegal means, at other times with strong signs 
of resentment and animosity against the senate. Hence no one 
should be surprised that, although they may be praised in some 



B. c. 133—121. THE GRACCHI. 335 

respects, for instance, for their disinterestedness and magna- 
nimity, still they have been generally considered, even by 
the greatest men, as the leaders of a faction and the disturbers 
of public peace.* 

Tiberius, the elder, being appointed plebeian tribune, un- 
dertook with great vigor to effect the revival of the agrarian law. 
so untiring were his exertions, and so well was he supported by 
the favor of the people against the opposition of the wealthy 
citizens, that he at last carried his point, and had the law 
republished. Still his popularity, owing to some despotic meas- 
ures to which he had resorted, began to be on the decline. The 
senate, at the same time, forgetting their usual moderation, 
resolved to oppose violence to the practices of the tribune. 
They availed themselves, for this purpose, of the following 
circumstance : Tiberius, in a general assembly of the people, 
not being able on account of the noise to make himself heard, 
pointed with his hand at his head, to mean that his ITfe was 
at stake. This gesture was maliciously interpreted by some 
to mean that he asked for a royal diadem. The senators, headed 
by Scipio Nasica and accompanied by their clients, ran forward 
to attack the unhappy tribune, notwithstanding the crowd by 
which he was surrounded. Tiberius fled, but having fallen and 
being overtaken in his flight, he was killed with three hun- 
dred of his partisans (b. c. 133). 

Caius Gracchus, who was nine years younger than Tiberius, 
had scarcely any share in these first disturbances j he withdrew 
for a time from the public assemblies, as though he had no 
desire to avenge the death and pursue the projects of his brother. 
But no sooner was he himself raised to the dignity of tribune, 
than the people found in him a most zealous defender of 
their claims; and the senate, a most formidable opponent of 
their privileges and authority. By the magic power of his 
eloquence, Caius carried out whatever he proposed to the 
multitude, and by this means was enabled to make a variety 
of regulations more or less hostile to the patrician order, and 
some of them subversive of the established rules of government. 

The senate devised a singular means to weaken the amazing 
popularity and influence of this daring officer; it consisted 
in making still greater concessions to the people than he had 

* See in Plutarch's life of Tiberius Gracchus, the decided opinion of 
Scipio iEmilianus; also Livy, Epit., b. 58—61; Cicero De officiis, b. ii, 
nos 43, 78, 79, and 80 ; St. Augustine De Civitate Dei, b. iii, c. 24 ; 
Bossuet, Discourse, part i, ad ann. 133 and 121, and part iii, ch. 7 ; Fer- 
guson, b. ii, c. 2 ; etc. 



336 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VI, 

made. Seeing their efforts attended with success, they at length 
resolved to attack him by open force. The consul Opimius, 
his personal enemy, marched against him with a body of chosen 
and well armed men, and easily put the attendants of the tribune 
either to the sword or to a precipitate flight. Caius, abandoned 
by that very people to whose interests he had sacrificed every 
other consideration, was not offered so much as a horse to make 
his escape. When he saw his enemies almost upon him, not 
to fall into their hands, he ordered a slave to kill him ; the slave 
obeyed, and immediately after ran his sword through his own 
body, and died near his master. In this terrible affray, there 
perished with Caius about three thousand persons, whose dead 
bodies were thrown into the Tiber (b. c. 121). 

Such was the unhappy end of Tiberius and Caius Gracchus, 
whom a mistaken zeal rendered the disturbers of their country, 
whereas they might have been its best defenders and brightest 
ornaments. Together with them disappeared their projects 
and laws, but, as the sequel will show, not the sad example 
of those dissensions and violent contests which their proceedings 
had occasioned. 

SCIPIO J3MILIANUS.— HIS DEATH AND CHARACTER. 

Among the victims of the late disturbances, there was one still 
more distinguished than the Gracchi themselves, viz. Scipio 
^Emilianus, the conqueror of Numantia and Carthage. He had 
just returned from the Numantine war, w r hen, being publicly 
asked what he thought of the violent death of Tiberius Gracchus, 
he answered that Tiberius had deserved it by his illegal and fac- 
tious proceedings. 

This answer highly displeased the people, most of whom sided 
with the Gracchi. Scipio was aware of the circumstance, and 
beheld the rapid decline of his popularity ; yet, he never deviated 
from the line of conduct which he had adopted, as the only one 
calculated to secure the welfare of the state. He moreover used 
all his influence to prevent the consequences of the late innova- 
tion, and with invincible firmness opposed the partiality of the 
commissioners who had been appointed to make a new distribu- 
tion of lands among the citizens. This conduct was the more 
laudable, as Scipio might have been a gainer by the rigorous 
execution of the agrarian law; and, on the other hand, he was 
not ignorant of the machinations which the leaders of the popular 
party were contriving against his life. Neither the name and 
character, nor the virtues and exploits of this great man, could 



SCIPIO ^EMILIANUS. 337 

shelter him against their violence : he was found dead in his bed, 
with evident marks of having been strangled during the night 
(b. C. 129). Scipio iEruilianus had lived fifty-six years. 

Home lost in him one of the most conspicuous heroes that her 
history could boast of; and, to use the expressions of Plu- 
tarch, "one incomparably the first, both in virtue and power, 
of the Romans of his time."* Party spirit and animosity did not 
allow the solemn celebration of his obsequies ; but the intense 
sorrow manifested by every one whoUoved virtue, fully made up 
for this deficiency of exterior pomp. Even his former rivals in 
glory acknowledged his superior merit. Q. Metellus Macedonicus, 
one of the leading men in the state, but who had always been 
opposed to Scipio, directed his sons to attend the funeral of the 
deceased hero: "Go, my sons," said he, "you never will render 
this last duty to a greater man and a better citizen." Another 
senator of high rank publicly thanked the gods for having made 
Scipio a Roman; "because," said he, "the empire of the world 
must needs have been for that nation and country which produced 
and nurtured so remarkable a personage." 

It was a peculiar feature in the character of Scipio iEinilianus, 
that, belonging to one illustrious family by birth and to another 
by adoption, he perfectly sustained and even increased the honor 
of both, as he excelled all his contemporaries in the arts of war 
and of civil government.^ An intrepid warrior and an excellent 
general, he equally signalized himself in the inferior rank of an 
officer and in the chief command of armies. With valor and 
prudence he joined greatness of views, and such a firmness in 
maintaining military discipline, as contributed not less than his 
courage and skill to the success of his campaigns; though, under 
another respect, it is painful to behold the inexorable severity 
which, in compliance with the orders or views of his government, 
he used against Numantia and Carthage. His ability and applica- 
tion in civil affairs were admirable. Having no other object in 
view than the welfare of his country, he sacrificed to it every pri- 
vate interest; for the sake of it, he despised every danger; and 
died a victim to his generous devotedness. His private life was 
marked by the same nobleness of sentiments and conduct; to 
which he added an amiable simplicity of manners, beneficence, 
liberality, and mildness without excessive indulgence, as well as 
firmness without excessive rigor. 

* Plutarch, in Pauhim JEmil. 
f See again Plutarch, in Paulum jEmil, and Velleius Paterculus, Hist. 
b.i, c. 13. 

29 



338 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VI. 

Not Rome and Italy only, but Spain and Egypt, Greece and 
Syria, the west and the east, were allowed by turn to witness and 
admire the great qualities of Scipio. It was a practice of the 
Romans to send frequent embassies among their allies, in order to 
see how matters stood among them, and to settle the pretensions 
or disputes of the various provinces. Scipio iEmilianus was 
appointed with Sp. Mummius and L. Metellus, two other dis- 
tinguished Romans, to visit first the kingdoms of Egypt and 
Syria, both a constant prey to agitation and disturbances, and 
afterwards Asia Minor and Greece. Their instructions were to 
examine the present condition of these countries; to see how 
punctually the conditions of the treaties of peace concluded with 
the Romans were fulfilled, and to repress, to the best of their 
ability, the abuses and disorders which might come to their 
knowledge. The ambassadors acquitted themselves of their com- 
mission with so much prudence, wisdom and equity, and ren- 
dered so signal services to those whom they visited, by restoring 
order among them and adjusting their differences, that, as soon 
as they returned to Rome, deputies came from the different pla- 
ces through which they had passed, to thank the senate for hav- 
ing sent them persons of such ability and virtue. Scipio espe- 
cially had been an object of the highest admiration. 

It seems therefore, all things being duly weighed, that Scipio 
iEmilianus may be regarded as the most accomplished man of 
ancient Rome.* He united in himself the strict virtue of the 
Romans of old with the polished manners of later ages, and the 
qualifications of the general and statesman with the character of 
the good son, the affectionate relative, the faithful friend, and 
even the excellent orator and scholar. For, in point of literary 
merit, eloquence and poetry, he was thought by many not infe- 
rior to Lselius the orator, and Terence the poet; it was even 
believed that both he and Lselius had a share in the composition 

* This is to be understood, not of absolute perfection, but of that nat- 
ural accomplishment of which pagans were capable. Even the most 
virtuous of them had their faults and failings ; nay, their very best 
actions were frequently tainted by motives of self-interest, ambition, 
thirst after human glory, and the like considerations. But these were 
not reputed vices among the gentiles; and besides they may, on several 
other occasions, have been guided by better motives, such as genuine 
patriotism, decorum or feelings of humanity, benevolence, compassion, 
and generosity. Hence, althoiigh their highest perfection cannot be 
compared with even the beginning of christian and supernatural virtue, 
yet the moral conduct of several of them, especially in the midst of 
errors and obstacles, is really deserving of praise and admiration. 
Such, among others, was the life of Scipio JEniilianus. 



n. c. 112—106. WAR AGAINST JUGURTHA. 339 

of the theatrical pieces of Terence. One thing is sure, namely, 
that Scipio lived in great intimacy with them both, as he also did 
with Panaetius the philosopher and Polybius the historian. 

One of the most interesting features of their friendship, was the 
simplicity with which these great men spent their leisure hours. 
When Scipio and Laslius were allowed to leave the confinement 
of business and retire to the country, they seemed to become 
children again, and freely indulged in the diversions and amuse- 
ments of which young boys are so fond. They were often 
se"en gathering shells and pebbles along the sea shore, to make 
them skip over the surface of the water. They did so merely 
for relaxation, but showed, however, by their choice of such an 
amusement, a candor, simplicity and innocence of manners, that 
cannot be too much admired in persons of their transcendent 
merit. 

Such was the character and life of Scipio the Younger or 
j^Emilianus. The cruel and shocking contrivance that put an 
end to his life, and still more so, the want of energy in ferreting 
out the authors of so great a crime, evidently showed how dread- 
ful a change for the worse had already begun to take place in 
the minds, hearts aud conduct of the Romans. This will still 
more appear as we advance in their history. 

WAR*AGAINST JUGURTHA.— b. c. 112—106. 

At the time during which the Gracchi conducted the public 
affairs in Rome, Numidia was governed by Micipsa, the son of 
the famous Masinissa, who had been, towards the end of the second 
Punic war, the most useful ally of the Romans. Micipsa reigned 
in peace for the space of thirty years. This prince had two sons, 
Adherbal and Hiempsal ; but he adopted a third in the person of 
Jugurtha, his nephew, a youth of splendid talents, and remarkable 
for his courage and activity. By his last will Micipsa appointed 
Jugurtha, together with Adherbal and Hiempsal, heir to his 
kingdom. He died shortly after (b. c. 118), having previously 
recommended to the three brothers perfect concord among them- 
selves, as the essential means and the surest pledge of prosperity.* 

The advice was good, but given to no effect. . Scarcely had 
Micipsa expired, when Jugurtha, whose ambition was still greater 
than his talents, resolved to reign alone, and for the execution of 
his project, did not hesitate to imbrue his hands in the blood of 

* "Nam concordia," he said to them, "res parvoe crescunt, discordia 
maxima3 dilabuntur." — Sallust, Bellum Jugurth., c. x. 



340 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VI 

his adopted brothers. He attacked them both in succession, and 
put them to a cruel death. 

The news of these heinous deeds was quickly spread in every 
direction, in Italy as well as in Africa. The Romans, under 
whose protection the family of Masinissa was placed, and who 
had hitherto contented themselves with embassies and remon- 
strances, at length openly declared war against Jugurtha. A first 
campaign conducted by L. Calpurnius had no other effect than 
the capture of several places, and a mock treaty, in which bribery 
had the greatest share, between that prince and the consul. To 
wipe off the disgrace of this transaction, it was determined to 
make Jugurtha come to Rome, to give an account of his conduct; 
he obeyed the summons, and without much reluctance set out for 
that city, where he knew that corruption and venality reigned to 
a frightful extent. 

Besides the many influential persons whom his deputies and 
gold had already seduced, he succeeded, on his arrival at Rome, 
in bribing a tribune of the people, and completely winning him 
over to his interest. It was agreed that this officer would exert 
in his behalf the tribunitial power, which allowed its possessors 
to stop any kind of deliberation by a simple veto. When there- 
fore Jugurtha was publicly ordered to answer the charges brought 
against him, the tribune forbade him to speak, and by his 
opposition put an end to all the proceedings. Justice and 
honesty were thus sacrificed ; iniquity triumphed ; and the Numi- 
dian prince applauded himself for his success. But, having 
carried his criminal audacity so far as to murder, in Rome itself, 
another grand-son of Masinissa, he was expelled from Italy, and 
hostilities recommenced.* 

The new generals charged with the conduct of the war in 
Africa, did nothing but bring fresh ignominy upon the Roman 
name, either by their connivance at the designs of the king, or 
their incapacity. One of them suffered himself to be led into a 
variety of useless measures by the stratagems of Jugurtha; an- 
other, after being worsted in an attack directed against his camp, 
was obliged to accept of terms as disgraceful as those of the treaty 
of Caudium in the Samnite war. Affairs began to assume a more 
favorable aspect, only when the command of the legions in Africa 
was given to Cascilius Metellus, a man equally commendable for 
his military skill and his incorruptible probity. His first care 

* It is said that, -when Jugurtha went out from Rome, turning towards 
the town, he exclaimed : "0 venal city, which would soon perish, if it 
could find a purchaser — Urbem venalem et mature perituram, si empto- 
rem invenerit!" — Sallust, c. xxxv. 



B.C. 112— 106. WAR AGAINST JUGURTHA. 341 

was to restore discipline and to revive courage among the soldiers, 
to whom these essential requisites seemed, before his arrival, to 
be totally unknown. Advancing then against Jugurtha, he gained 
signal advantages over him, and notwithstanding the courageous 
and well directed resistance that he met from this prince, subdued 
nearly the whole of his kingdom. He was on the point of reap- 
ing the fruit of so much labor, when the honor of terminating the 
war was snatched from him by one of his lieutenants. 

This officer was the famous Marius, whose talents afterwards 
became so useful, and whose violent passions also became so fatal 
to his country. The beginnings of his career, especially as a sol- 
dier, are described thus by Plutarch : He was born of obscure 
parents, who supported themselves by labor. It was late before 
he came to Rome. Till then he remained in the country, and 
his manner of living there was perfectly rustic, if compared with 
the elegance of polished life ; but at the same time it was tempe- 
rate, and much resembled that of the ancient Romans. 

He made his first campaign against the Celtiberians, when 
Scipio Africanus (the Younger or .ZEmilianus) besieged Numan- 
tia. It did not escape the notice of his general how far he was 
above the other young soldiers in courage, nor how easily he came 
into the reformation in point of diet, which Scipio introduced 
into the army. It is said likewise that he performed great 
exploits in the sight of this general, who, on that account, dis- 
tinguished him with many marks of honor, so far as to invite him 
to his table. One evening, as the conversation happened to turn 
upon the great commanders then in existence, some person in the 
company, either to please Scipio, or for a real desire of informa- 
tion, asked, " where the Romans should find such an able leader, 
when he had departed this life/^ Upon this question, Scipio, 
putting his hand on the shoulder of Marius who sat next to him, 
said ; " Here, perhaps/' So happy was the genius of these great 
men, that the one, while but a youth, gave tokens of his future 
abilities, and the other from those beginnings, could discover the 
long series of glorious exploits which was to follow. 

When afterwards Marius was appointed one of the chief officers 
of the army in the Numidian war, he considered his promotion as 
a way open to him for noble achievements. That war presenting 
many critical occasions, he endeavored to improve them all, and 
neither declined the most difficult service, nor thought the most 
servile toil beneath his rank in the army. Thus surpassing his 
equals in prudence and foresight, and vieing with the common 
soldiers in labor and abstemiousness, he entirely gained their 
affections. His glory, his influence, his reputation, spread 

29* 



342 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VL 

through Africa, and extended even to Rome ; the men under his 
command wrote to their friends at home, that the only means of 
bringing the Numidian contest to a close, was to elect Marius 
consul; he himself earnestly endeavored to secure the public 
feeling to his cause, by using invectives and false reports against 
Metellus, and making splendid promises for a speedy termination 
of the war. The people being thus prepossessed in his behalf, 
looked upon him as the best general they could intrust with the 
command of the Roman army in Numidia, and readily gave him 
their votes for the consular dignity. 

Metellus was deeply afflicted at this preference given by the 
Roman people to his ungrateful and envious lieutenant. Con- 
trary however to his expectation, he met at Rome with a most 
flattering reception from all orders of the state, and obtained tri- 
umphal honors with the surname of Numidicus. As to Marius, 
being an excellent general himself and pursuing the war with 
great skill and activity, he easily completed the overthrow of 
Jugurtha; not however without adding negotiations to warlike 
efforts, and to victories won by his valor. 

The Numidian prince had sought and obtained the assistance 
of Bocchus, king of Mauritania. The loss of two battles in suc- 
cession made the latter waver in his alliance, and he resolved to 
conclude a separate peace with the Romans ; for this effect, he 
sent deputies to Marius, who on his part sent his quEestor, the 
famous Sylla, to deliberate with the king on their respective 
interests. Sylla spoke to Bocchus with much art and address, 
and gave him to understand that, if he were sincere in his desire 
for peace, he ought to purchase the friendship of the Romans by 
an important service, that is, by delivering Jugurtha into their 
hands. The king was reluctant to betray one who was his ally, 
his kinsman, his relative ; nay, he seemed at times much inclined 
to betray Sylla himself, and give him up to Jugurtha who re- 
peatedly urged him to do so. But the Roman, not less eloquent 
than intrepid, at length carried the' point. Private interest had 
more weight with Bocchus than all the ties of kindred, alliance, 
and friendship, and finally prevailed on this base and irresolute 
niau to comply with the views of Rome. Having invited Jugur- 
tha to an interview, he arrested him, loaded him with chains, and 
immediately gave him up to the Romans (b. c. 106). 

This event, although the mere effect of intrigue on the one 
side, and perfidy on the other, put an end to the Jugurthine war. 
Sylla, on that occasion, acted as one excessively desirous of fame: 
instead of referring the glory of the transaction (if glory it can 
be called) to his general, he attributed the whole to himself, and 



B. c. 105—101. TEUTONES AND CIMBRI. 343 

caused a seal to be made, representing him as receiving Jugurtha 
from the hands of Bocchus. He ever after carried that seal 
about his person, and constantly made use of it for his letters. 
This highly provoked Marius, who was naturally ambitious and 
could not endure a rival in glory ; hence originated that violent 
and implacable quarrel between these two men, which almost 
ruined the Roman empire. 

As to Jugurtha, he was made first, as was usual for captives of 
his rank, to grace the conqueror's triumph. He was then thrown 
into a dungeon, where, having suffered for six clays the pangs of 
starvation, he expired in awful misery (b. c. 105) j a death wor- 
thy of him who had, during his lifetime, immolated so many in- 
nocent victims to his insatiable ambition. 

INVASION AND DEFEAT OF THE TEUTONES AND CIMBRI. 
b. c. 105—101. 

It seemed to be the destiny of Rome, never to terminate a war 
that was not immediately followed by another. The Romans 
had scarcely concluded their rejoicings at the defeat of Jugurtha 
and the triumph of Marius, when they found themselves exposed 
to total destruction from the attacks of northern barbarians. 
Countless bands of Teutones and Cimbri, who were joined in 
their march by other warlike tribes, had been for some time 
advancing from the north-east of Europe towards the western and 
southern countries. Besides their myriads of well armed warri- 
ors, they had their families along with them, and ail this vast 
multitude wanted cities in which to settle, and lands on which 
they might subsist. 

The courage of these barbarians, their spirit, and the force and 
vivacity with which they made an attack, may be compared to a 
devouring flame. Nothing could resist their impetuosity. Many 
respectable armies and generals (Carbo, Silanus, Cassius, etc.), 
employed by the Romans to guard their frontiers in Noricum and 
Gaul, were overcome ; and the feeble barrier which they opposed 
to this new enemy, served only to encourage his pretensions and 
favor his progress. 

To increase, as it were, the fury of the storm thus hanging over 
Italy, Rome had the imprudence, in the year B. c. 105, to intrust 
the command of her armies in Gaul to generals equally unskilful 
and presumptuous, the consul Mallius and the proconsul Csepio. 
This rash step was the forerunner of the most bloody defeat ever 
experienced by the Romans. In a battle fought near the river 
Rhone, eighty thousand of their soldiers were slain, together with 



344 ANCIENT HISTORY. Pakt VI. 

forty thousand in the service of the army ; it is said that no more 
than ten Romans escaped from this dreadful carnage. Fortu- 
nately the conquerors, instead of invading Italy at once and 
advancing towards Rome, lost their time in other expeditions. 
This delay allowed the Roman people to recover from their ter- 
ror, and muster new troops ; but their chief resource against the 
still impending danger was in Marius. The better to enable him 
to exert his talents and activity, by an unprecedented example 
in the annals of the republic, he was continued in the consulship 
for several years in succession. 

He was consul for the fourth time, when the Teutones and 
Cimbri, having laid waste a considerable part of Gaul and Spain, 
resumed their former design of attacking Rome. They made 
two grand divisions of their army, and, while one intended to 
follow the ordinary road through Liguria along the sea-coast, the 
other, making a long circuit, undertook to penetrate into Italy by 
the valley of Trent. Marius opposed the first, composed chiefly 
of the Teutones and Ambrones ; and Catulus his colleague, 
marched against the Cimbri. 

Marius stationed his legions at the confluence of the Isere and 
the Rhone, and fortified his camp in the most effectual manner. 
The barbarians, reproaching him with cowardice for taking these 
precautions, challenged him to a battle ; but the consul, well aware 
that this was not a proper opportunity for an engagement, like a 
wise commander, clisregarded the challenge, and said to his men, who 
were surprised at his conduct, that their present ambition should 
be not to obtain triumphs and trophies, but to dispel the awful 
storm that threatened them, and to save Italy from destruction. 
The enemy, then, not being able in any way to bring the Ro- 
mans to a pitched battle, attacked their intrenchments; but they 
were received with a shower of darts from the camp, which destroyed 
a large number of them and compelled the rest to withdraw. 
They soon became weary of this state of things, and resolved to 
go forward, in the hope that they might cross the Alps without 
opposition and difficulty. Their immense numbers now appeared 
more clearly than ever, from the length of their train and the 
time which they occupied in passing. For it is said that, although 
they moved on without intermission, they were six days in going 
by the Roman camp, and some of them approaching it, insultingly 
asked the legionaries, "whether they had any commands to their 
families." (See in the Appendix § iv.) 

The barbarians had no sooner passed, than Marius also 
removed his camp and closely followed them, using at the 
same time every precaution to avoid surprise. When he arrived 



b. c. 105—101. TEUTONES AND CIMBRI. 345 

at the colony of Aquae Sextiae (now Aix in Provence), he resolved, 
without going further, to give them battle. Having chosen 
a spot extremely favorable to his army, he attacked the enemy 
with immense advantage, and in a combat which lasted two days, 
put the greater part of them to the sword. According to the 
Latin historians,* one hundred and fifty or two hundred thousand 
barbarians were slain, and about eighty thousand, with Teuto- 
bochus their king, taken prisoners. Thus, one-half of the hordes 
that had been for several years so formidable to the Romans, 
was destroyed by the valor and skill of Marius, (b. c. 102). 

This general, being now appointed consul for the fifth time, 
went to join Catulus, whose first exertions against the Cimbri, 
without any fault of his, had not been equally successful 
with those of his colleague. The overwhelming numbers of 
the invaders so terrified the legionaries under him, that many 
began to desert their colors; still, on the junction of the two 
armies, their courage was revived, and the generals determined to 
give another battle. But the Cimbri deferred the combat, 
pretending that they were waiting for the Teutones, at whose de- 
lay they wondered, either being really ignorant of their fate 
or not believing their defeat. For they punished with stripes 
those who brought them the news of the late engagement, 
and sent to ask of Marius lands and cities sufficient both for 
themselves and their brethren. 

When Marius enquired of their ambassadors who their breth- 
ren were, they answered, " the Teutones." The assembly laughed, 
and Marius replied in a taunting manner : " Do not trouble 
yourselves about your brethren; for they have land enough, 
which we have already given them, and they shall have it 
for ever." The ambassadors, perceiving the irony, answered 
in sharp and scurrilous terms, assuring him that the Cimbri 
would chastise him immediately, and that the Teutones would do 
the same when they arrived. "And they are not far on ," 
said Marius; "it would, therefore, be very unkind in you to go 
away without saluting your brethren." At the same time, 
he ordered the chieftains of the Teutones to be brought forward, 
loaded as they were with chains; for they had been taken 
prisoners after their defeat, as they were endeavoring to escape 
over the Alps. 

No sooner did the Cimbri learn from their ambassadors what 
had passed, than they marched directly against Marius; but 
he, for the present, remained within his trenches. Then Boiorix, 

* levy's Epitome, b. lxviii; — Velleius Paterc. b. ii, c. 11 ;— andFlorus, 
though not equally explicit, b. iii, c. 3. 



346 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VI. 

their king, with a small party of horse, approached the Roman 
camp, and challenged the consul to appoint a time and place 
at which they might meet, and decide by arms to whom the 
country should belong. Marius answered that the Romans were 
not in the habit of consulting their enemies about the place and 
time in which they thought proper to fight; still, he would 
gratify the Cimbri in this point. Accordingly, they agreed 
to fight the third day after, and chose for their field of battle the 
plain of Vercellse, which was well adapted for the Roman 
cavalry to act with perfect ease, and convenient for the bar- 
barians to display their numbers (b. C. 101). 

Both parties kept their promise, and drew up their forces. 
Catulus received the enemy in front; Marius made a movement 
to assail them on their flank, but as they were concealed by the 
clouds of dust which every where rose from the plain, he for 
a time missed his way, and, it appears, could not engage the 
Cimbri, till they had already been repulsed with great loss 
by the troops of Catulus. Marius at least concurred in com- 
pleting their overthrow, by attacking them when they were 
already quite exhausted by their own efforts, their loss on the 
field of battle, and the heat of the day. One hundred and 
twenty or forty thousand of them were slain with their king 
Boiorix; sixty thousand submitted to be taken prisoners. The 
remainder perished by their own hands; and this numerous host, 
so terrific and threatening a few hours before, disappeared, 
as it were, in a moment from the face of the earth* 

On receiving at Rome the news of this decisive result, the 
whole city resounded with joy. Extraordinary marks of grati- 
tude were conferred on Marius; and, besides the honors of 
a solemn triumph, which he enjoyed together with Catulus, 
he received from the people the flattering title of third founder 
of Rome, which placed him in their esteem next to Romu- 
lus and the great Camillus. 

* According to certain memoirs cited by Plutarch, "the baggage was 
plundered by the soldiers of Marius ; but the other spoils, with the en- 
signs and trumpets, were brought to the camp of Catulus, and the lat- 
ter availed himself chiefly of this fact, to show that the defeat of the 
Cimbri had been achieved by him and the legions which he commanded. 
It appears, indeed, that a warm dispute arose between his troops and 
those of Marius, which of the two had the greater share in the victory ; 
and some ambassadors from Parma, who happened to be in the Roman 
camp, were chosen as arbitrators. The soldiers of Catulus led them to 
the field of battle to seethe dead, and clearly proved that the Cimbri 
were killed by their javelins, because Catulus had taken care, before the 
conflict, to have the shafts inscribed with his name. Nevertheless, the 
whole honor of the day was ascribed to Marius, on account of his former 
victory and his present superiority of power ;" for he was then a consul, 
whereas Catulus acted only as a proconsul. — Plutarch, in Caium Murium. 



b.c. 100— 78. MARIUS.— SYLLA. 347 



MARIUS CONTINUED.— WAR OF THE ALLIES, OR THE CON- 
FEDERATE WAR.— FIRST WAR AGAINST MITHRIDATES.— 
CIVIL WAR BETWEEN MARIUS AND SYLLA.— VICTORIES, 
POWER, ABDICATION, AND DEATH OF SYLLA.— b. c. 100—78. 

"We place these different wars and facts under the same title, 
not only because they occurred during the same period of time, 
but especially on account of their close connexion with each 
other.* 

It would have been fortunate for Marius, if, satisfied with the 
honor which he had gained at the head of armies, he had with- 
drawn from public affairs. But his ambition could not brook 
the idea of being reduced to the occupations of private life. By 
dint of intrigues, he succeeded in being re-elected consul a sixth 
time, and, having no military expedition to conduct, found 
employment for his restless mind by joining a faction of dem- 
agogues, whose sole object was to excite new disturbances in the 
republic. His jealousy was particularly directed against the 
illustrious Metellus Numidicus, whom he caused for a time to 
live in exile ; and still more so against Sylla, whose reputation 
for skill and valor daily increased. The latter, although but the 
second in command during the late war, both under Marius him- 
self and Catulus, had gained much glory by his exploits and 
services. He was, moreover, on his own part, too proud and too 
lofty in his pretensions, to bear with patience the envious opposi- 
tion of Marius. New incidents added fuel to their animosity, 
and this disposition seemed ready to break out into open hos- 
tilities, when the war of the allies required the exertions of both 
Marius and Sylla for the defence of the commonwealth, and de- 
layed the effects of their mutual resentment. 

The various nations of Italy had long petitioned for the title 
of Roman citizens. Their reasons for obtaining this privilege 
were, that they paid considerable taxes; that in time of war they 
furnished more than one-half of the Roman armies; that the 
commonwealth was greatly indebted to their valor for the high 
degree of power and glory which it enjoyed, and consequently, it 
was but just that they should be admitted to share in the privi- 

*See Livy's Epitome, b. lxix--xc ; — Freinsheraius, Supplem. to thesame 
books of Livy ; — Florus, t>. iii, c. 5, 18, 21 — Velleius Paterculus, b. ii, c. 
14—20; — Plutarch's lives of Marius and Sylla ; — Ferguson's Rome, b. ii, 
c. 6, 7 ; — Vertot, Revolutions Romaines, b. x and xi ; — Crevier (Rollin's 
continuator), Ilistoire Romaine, vol. ix and x ; — etc. 



348 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VI. 

leges of a state, whose empire they had contributed so much 
to extend. But the senate and the people of Rome generally 
disliked to accept for their equals men whom, under the specious 
name of allies, they were used to consider as the subjects or 
vassals of the republic. Accordingly, the Italians determined to 
wrest by force of arms what they could not obtain by mere re- 
quest. They sent into the field numerous bodies of troops, not 
inferior in resolution, courage and discipline, to the Romans 
themselves, with whom they had so often fought against foreign 
enemies. The senate, on their part, were not idle in making 
preparations for the approaching conflict. They hastened to 
muster a larger number of legions than was customary, and dis- 
tributing them into various bodies for the purpose of acting in 
various places at once, put them under the command of all the 
ablest generals of the republic. Such was the origin of what is 
called in Roman history the War of the allies, or the Confederate 
war — Sociale helium. 

This war occasioned many bloody engagements, pitched battles, 
captures or surrenders of cities, and other similar events whose 
particulars are little known. " It cost," says Velleius Paterculus, 
"the lives of more than three hundred thousand men, the flower 
of the Italian youth." During the years B. c. 90 — 89, victory 
repeatedly passed from one side to the other, and the two hostile 
parties did little else than inflict and incur losses, without abating 
their pretensions and animosity. Towards the end, indeed, the 
. Romans gained signal advantages; yet the senate, perceiving 
that even their victories were hurtful to them, by depriving the 
commonwealth of many brave defenders, began to alter their line 
of conduct towards the Italians, though they did so with caution, 
taking great care to preserve the dignity of the Roman name. 
They at first granted the title of Roman citizens to those only 
who had persevered in their alliance with Rome ; but they, after- 
wards, extended it to such among the confederates as consented 
to lay down their arms. 

This policy was perfectly successful. The ardor of the enemy 
was greatly damped by the hope of obtaining in this easy manner 
the object of their wishes. The several tribes of Italy hastened to 
make a treaty, and the Romans, with their usual magnanimity 
or prudence, conceded in behalf of divided and weakened enemies, 
what they had refused in the time of their confederacy and 
greatest vigor. There only remained to carry on the contest, the 
Samnites and Lucanians, the ancient enemies of Rome; and 
even these, in maintaining it for some years longer, displayed 
more animosity than real strength, nor did they keep the field 



b. c. 100—78. MARIUS.— SYLLA. 349 

otherwise than' by joining in the civil feuds which shortly after 
distracted and harassed the commonwealth. 

During the war of the allies, the reputation of Sylla increased, 
whilst that of Marius decreased in the same proportion. The 
latter now seemed slow in his attacks, as well as dilatory in his 
resolutions, whether it Avas because age had chilled his martial 
ardor (for he was more than sixty -five years old), or because, as 
he himself acknowledged, the fatigues of war were above his 
bodily strength. However, he took care to give the enemy no 
advantage over him, and once he even defeated them in a great 
battle, in which at least six thousand of them were killed. But 
pretending soon to be incapacitated for the service by his in- 
firmities, he resigned the command. Sylla, still full of vigor and 
activity, had acted in a very different manner : by the combined 
exertions of his courage and skill, he won several battles, 
subdued important cities, and performed so many memorable 
things, that he was considered by the citizens at large as a great 
general, by his friends as the greatest in the world, and by his 
enemies as the most fortunate. Under such circumstances, it 
was easy for him to obtain the dignity of consul, and together 
with it the command of those legions that were destined to fight 
against the famous Mithridates, king of Pontus. 

Mithridates, a talented and warlike, and at the same time, an 
ambitious, unjust and savage prince, was, next to Annibal, the 
most implacable enemy of the Romans. His empire chiefly con- 
sisted of territories lately acquired by force of arms. His troops 
amounted to nearly three hundred thousand, with whom he con- 
quered Asia Minor and Greece, wdiilst a fleet of four hundred 
vessels made him master of the neighboring seas and of many 
islands. These forces were under the command of able generals ; 
but Mithridates himself was their chief commander, and, when he 
did not lead them in person,, he at least directed their principal 
operations. The conquests which he had most at heart, were 
those of Capplidocia and Bithynia, two neighboring kingdoms : 
he wrested them from Ariobarzanes and Nicomedes, their sove- 
reigns and the allies of Borne; and to destroy, with the least pos- 
sible delay, the influence of that city, and secure his own power 
over all the east, he caused about a hundred thousand Romans or 
Italians who inhabited Asia Minor, to be slaughtered on the same 
day (B. c. 88). 

This barbarous act, added to the other aggressions of Mithrida- 
tes, deserved severe and prompt chastisement. The charge of 
inflicting it was confided to Sylla, then a consul, who immediately 
began to prepare every thing for his departure. But Marius 



350 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VL 

could not see, without the utmost jealousy, so important a com- 
mission given to any one but himself ; by intrigues and violence, 
during the absence of Sylla from Home, he caused the appoint- 
ment to be changed in his own favor. The consul^not having yet 
left Italy and being apprised of this insult, returned at the head of 
his legions, entered the city as a conqueror, and, though he used 
great moderation towards the generality of the citizens, put the 
chief partisans of his envious competitor either to death or to flight. 

Marios himself, whom the senate, at Sylla's request, declared 
a public enemy, was one of the fugitives. Being closely pursued, 
he narrowly escaped with his life, and was obliged first to con- 
ceal himself in marshes, and then to cross the sea and seek a 
shelter on distant shores, amidst the dreary ruins of Carthage. 
Even there he was not safe. For, he had scarcely landed with a few 
of his men, when an officer came from Sextilius, the Roman go- 
vernor in Africa, to forbid him to set his foot in that region ; 
otherwise, Sextilius would obey the decree of the senate, and 
treat him as a public enemy. Marius, hearing this, was struck 
with grief and indignation ; he uttered not a word for some time, 
but regarded the officer with a menacing aspect. At length this 
man asked what answer he should carry to the governor ? " G-o, 
and tell him," said the unhappy exile with a sigh, " that thou 
hast seen Marius a fugitive, sitting on the ruins of Carthage !" 
This was, indeed, a striking coincidence, and a forcible exemplifi- 
cation of the vicissitudes of human prosperity. Marius continued 
to exemplify it in his person, by wandering in search of a hos- 
pitable land, till a new change (to be afterwards noticed) in the 
state of affairs recalled him to Italy and to Rome. 

In the interim, Sylla with his legionaries had set out for the 
east, and commenced a vigorous war against Mithridates. Find- 
ing Greece occupied by the troops of this prince, he began his 
military operations with the siege of Athens, and carried that 
city by storm after a long and brave resistance. From thence he 
proceeded to Chseroiiea in Boeotia, where he found himself op- 
posed by an army three or four times as numerous as his own, and 
amounting to upwards of a hundred thousand men. They were 
under the command of Archelaus, the ablest, perhaps, among 
all the generals of Mithridates. It was not the intention of this 
general to give battle to the Romans, but rather, by a dilatory 
war, gradually to undermine their strength; his chief officers, 
however, at length prevailed on him to fight, and all prepared for 
a general engagement. This was perfectly in accordance with the 
views of Sylla. He made the necessary preparations, and so well 
did he concert his measures and animate his troops, that he gained 



b. c. 100—78. MATUUS.— SYLLA. 351 

a complete victory; of so many myriads of the^enemy's .sol- 
diers, only ten thousand escaped the swords of the Romans. 

Shortly after, he obtained another signal advantage, in the 
plains of Ochomenus, over a new and powerful army sent by 
Mithridatcs into Greece. The beginning of the action was very 
unfavorable to the Romans ; several bodies of their troops, terri- 
fied by a sudden attack of the barbarians, gave way and fled. At 
the sight of this panic, Sylla dismounted from his horse, seized 
one of the colors, and fearlessly advancing towards the enemy, 
cried out to those around him that were flying : " It is glorious 
for me to die here ; as for you, Romans, when you shall be asked 
where you abandoned your general, remember to say that it was 
at Orchomenus." These reproaches and his example revived the 
courage of his soldiers ; they returned to the charge, and repulsed 
the enemy. A similar attack which the troops of Mithridates 
made a short time after the first, likewise ended in their defeat. 
Finally, a third engagement completed their overthrow. They 
experienced such a loss, that the fens were filled with the blood 
of the slain, and the small lakes of the neighborhood with dead 
bodies ; Archelaus, their general, escaped only by remaining for 
the space of two clays concealed in the marshes. From thence he 
went to Chalcis, where he occupied himself in collecting the rem- 
nants of his two armies (b. c. 86). 

Mithridates, dismayed both by these defeats and by other losses 
suffered at the same time in Asia, commissioned Archelaus to 
make proposals of peace. This general was aware of the neces- 
sity which urged Sylla to return speedily to Rome for the recov- 
ery of his party, now oppressed there and nearly crushed by that 
of Marius : he offered him the money, vessels and troops of his 
sovereign to make war in Italy, provided the undisturbed posses- 
sion of Lesser Asia should be left to Mithridates. Sylla's indig- 
nation was roused at this offer; still he dissembled his feelings for 
a moment, and in his turn exhorted Archelaus to make himself 
king in the place of Mithridates, promising to aid him in this en- 
terprise, provided he would deliver the fleet under his command 
into the hands of the Romans. Archelaus protested, and declared 
his detestation of such perfidy. "Why I" exclaimed Sylla, " you, 
the slave, or at best, the friend of a barbarian king, look upon it as 
baseness to betray your master; and dare you propose the like 
treason to Sylla, the Roman general ! As if you were not that 
Archelaus, who at Cha3ronea fled with a handful of men, the sad 
remains of one hundred and twenty thousand ; who concealed 
himself two days in the marshes of Orchomcnus ; and left the 
roads of Bceotia blocked up with heaps of dead bodies." 



352 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VI. 

Arehelaus was thunderstruck at this answer; he lowered his 
pretensions, and accepted all the terms which Sylla thought pro- 
per to impose on the king of Pontus. But when the king him- 
self was desired to ratify the treaty, he showed great reluctance 
with respect to two of its conditions, the delivery of his vessels, 
and the surrender of Paphlagonia. " What," said Sylla with ani- 
mation, "does Mithriclates pretend to keep Paphlagonia, and 
refuse the vessels which I have demanded ? Mithridates, I say, 
who ought rather to have entreated me, on his knees, to spare the 
man who has slain so many Romans. " The king was obliged to 
yield. He lost by this treaty his conquests, his navy, a great 
part of his treasures, and was confined to the former limits of the 
kingdom of Pontus; a loss much embittered by the contrast of 
the great designs he had formed, added to the odium of the many 
crimes he had committed to gratify his ambition. 

Whilst Sylla caused the Roman power to be respected abroad, 
he was, in consequence of the animosity of the party opposed to 
him, ill requited at home for his services. During his long ab- 
sence, Marius had re-entered Rome, and being supported by nu- 
merous bands of factious men and slaves, he employed them in 
destroying his real or imaginary opponents. Such of the citizens, 
even the most illustrious senators and magistrates, as were obnox- 
ious' to him and would not or could not make their escape, were 
mercilessly put to death. The slaughter was extended to a mul- 
titude of other persons whose only crime was to be possessed of 
great wealth, or to have ever so little incurred the suspicions of 
the vindictive Marius. It was understood by his partizans that 
his refusal to return a salutation should be considered as a death 
warrant. Rancor and exasperated ambition had rendered him a 
real monster of cruelty. His very friends did not approach him 
without fear; and as the meanest retainers of his party had their 
personal resentments as well as himself, and took this opportunity 
to indulge their passions, the city resembled a place taken by 
storm, and every quarter of the city was a theatre of robbery, 
violence and murder. This frightful state of things continued 
without intermission five days and five nights. 

Nor was the evil confined to Rome ; all Italy felt the effects 
of the implacable fury of Marius. Every road, every town, was 
full of assassins, pursuing and hunting the unhappy victims of his 
suspicion. Few of the latter escaped. They could trust neither 
friends nor relatives, and most of them were betrayed by those 
in whose dwellings they had sought shelter. As to Marius, the 
chief author of so many evils, being yet at a very advanced age 
not less ambitious than cruel, he caused himself to be appointed 



b. c. 100—78. ' MARIUS.— SYLLA. 353 

consul for the seventh time, not by the people, but by China, the 
Other consul. In the mean while, the fear of Sylla' s return gave 
him incessant uneasiness. He was agitated with nocturnal ter- 
rors, and betrayed symptoms of a distracted mind. Either to 
avoid a new misfortune, or to shake off the pressure of increasing 
alarms, he began to indulge in the excessive use of wine, and fell 
sick of the pleurisy, of which he died on the 7th day of his 
illness, the 17th day of his last consulate, and in the 70th year 
of his life (b. C. 8(3), leaving behind him a name more worthy 
of the execration than of the admiration of posterity.* 

After the death of Marius, the government continued in the 
hands of his abettors. Many of the senators and other citizens, 
obnoxious to the prevailing party, took refuge with Sylla. This 
general himself was declared a public enemy; his house was de- 
molished; and his children, with Metella their mother, having 
narrowly escaped the pursuit of their enemies, fled to their father 
in Greece. So many unpleasant tidings did not change Sylla's 
mind and conduct with regard to the war which he was still wag- 
ing against the king of Pontus, nor induce him to make any con- 
cessions to the enemies of Rome. He declared indeed his inten- 
tion to avenge the blood of his friends and punish the disturbers 
of the commonwealth, but not till he had forced Mithridates to 
make reparation for the wrongs he had done to the Romans or 
their allies. Having at length settled the affairs of the east by 
a treaty equally honorable to the Roman name and to himself, 
he set out for the west at the head of forty thousand brave vet- 
erans, devoted to the cause of their general. With this force 
he landed on the shores of Italy, and found that amazing prepa- 
rations had been made against him by the party of Marius. His 
enemies, who had been joined by the Samnites and Lucanians, 
were supposed to have, at different stations, upwards of two hun- 
dred thousand men under fifteen generals. 

Against so many opponents, who, happily for him, did not 
well combine their efforts, Sylla dexterously and successfully 
employed stratagem blended with valor. Carbo, one of the chief 
leaders in the opposite party, said, on this account, that in Sylla 
he had to contend both with a fox and a lion, but that the fox 
gave him the greater trouble. Moreover, the great reputation of 
this general drew numbers of soldiers to his standard, and being 
ably seconded by Crassus and Pompey, who then began to signa- 

* Fuit Caius Marius, quantum bello optimus, tantumpace pessimus... 
in bello hostibus, In otio civibus infestissimus. — Velleius Paterc. b. ii, 

c. 10, 10. 

30* 



354 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VL 

lize themselves, lie every where prevailed over the party of 
Marius. 

Still, a decisive battle fought under the walls of Rome, was 
very .near snatching from him the fruit of all his labors. The 
last of the enemy's armies was under the command of Telesinus, 
the Samnite, an experienced and intrepid man, worthy of being 
an antagonist of Sylla and Pompey. Having deceived these two 
generals by a skilful march, he reached by night the neigh- 
borhood of the Roman capital, which he knew to be almost 
defenceless. The day following, Sylla followed him closely, and 
when he arrived found the enemy preparing to force the gates 
of the city. He gave orders for an immediate attack. The conflict, 
carried on between two armies of determined valor and rendered 
still more furious by inveterate hatred, was obstinate in the ex- 
treme, and victory remained for a long time doubtful. The 
left wing of Sylla' s army, being attacked by the whole strength 
of the Samnites, was much distressed, and at first compelled 
to give way j but the right wing under Crassus was completely 
victorious. The action, so varied in its results throughout 
different parts of the field, became at length completely decisive 
in behalf of the Romans. Telesinus, whilst animating his troops 
by word and example, fell covered with wounds, and together 
with him nearly the whole of his army was cut to pieces ; for 
Sylla had ordered to give no quarter. This battle was a death- 
blow to the party of Marius, and prostrated it for ever in Italy 
(b. c. 82). 

Until this period, Sylla' s conduct in his capacity of magistrate 
and general had been praiseworthy, or at least generally excusable. 
Had he ceased to live on the day on which he conquered the rest 
of his enemies, he might have seemed worthy of his fortune, and 
of the surname of fortunate, or prosperous, which he liked to 
assume. But from this time forward, he appeared chiefly as an 
odious tyrant. His prosperity, his resentment of personal wrongs, 
and perhaps an idea that the state was to be purged of its evils 
by the death of all their authors, changed his former moderation 
into unflinching rigor, and made him sully the glory of his tri- 
umph by cruel and bloody retaliation. The day after his victory 
over Telesinus and the Samnites, he put to death several thousand 
soldiers of the Marian party, who had surrendered to him under 
promise of life. Even that butchery was only the beginning of 
the terrible executions which he contemplated. Causing himself 
to be invested by the people, or rather investing himself, with 
unlimited power and the dictatorial dignity for an indefinite 
time, he doomed to death the remnants of the vanquished with 



b. c. 100—78. MARIUS.— SYLLA. 355 

unabated animosity. The lists of proscription were put up not 
only in Rome, but in all the cities of Italy. Neither the temple, 
nor the paternal roof, nor the hospitable hearth, was any sure 
protection against murder; and those who were sacrificed to 
party spirit and private resentment, were not to be compared in 
number with those who perished on account of their wealth. 
There were put to death for one or the other of these reasons, 
about two thousand senators and knights, and a far greater num- 
ber of other citizens or allies, whose blood flowed like a stream 
in some parts of Italy. 

When these dreadful executions began to subside, the dictator 
set himself about enacting various regulations, and endeavor- 
ing to restore the commonwealth, as far as possible, to its 
former state. He revived or increased the penalties against 
crimes peculiarly hurtful to society, such as perjury, the adulte- 
ration of coin, poisoning, and assassination. Being aware how 
often and how much the tribunitial power had been misused, he 
considerably weakened it, and replaced the chief authority in the 
hands of the senate and patrician order. These measures were 
wholesome and expedient; not so, however, was the course which 
he pursued in behalf of the troops who had fought under his 
banner, and whose number had increased to more than a hundred 
thousand men. As a reward for their services to his cause, 
he distributed among them the lands of those who had belonged 
to the opposite party. Besides the violence implied in this 
measure, subsequent leaders of parties in the state learned, from 
his example, how to gain the legions over to their interests, and, 
by immense largesses, to attach them much more to their per- 
sons than to the republic. 

Sylla, by this time, had governed the state for two years with 
absolute power, and public opinion or flattery, repeatedly ex- 
pressed in his behalf, seemed to have sanctioned his authority, 
when he resolved to lay it down of his own accord. In' fact, this 
singular man, to the astonishment of every one, freely resigned 
that high station, the highest indeed ever obtained by any Roman, 
which he had only reached through torrents of human blood. 
But. although he had now reduced himself to the condition of a 
private citizen, he continued to inspire so much respect or fear, 
that among the myriads of persons who had to consider him as 
the destroyer of their relatives and friends, not one thought or 
dared to avenge them by his death. 

Sylla spent his leisure hours, first in country amusements and 
the composition of his memoirs, and then also, to his own cost, 
in licentiousness and debauchery. His excesses occasioned or 



356 ANCIENT HISTORY. Pakt VL 

increased a distemper, which carried him off in the sixtieth year of 
his life (b. c. 78). Like Marius, he had been successively a most 
useful instrument and a most terrible scourge to his country; and 
he himself expressed the exact truth about his character, when 
he prepared the following inscription to be engraved on his tomb : 
"Here lies Sylla, who never was outdone in good offices by a 
friend, nor in acts of hostility and revenge by an enemy." 
" Being rapacious in a high degree," says Plutarch, "he was still 
more liberal ; and in preferring or disgracing whom he pleased 
equally unaccountable. ... He would sometimes put men to 
cruel tortures on slight grounds, and sometimes overlook the 
greatest crimes. He would easily take some persons into favor 
after the most unpardonable offences, while he took vengeance 
on others for small and trifling faults by death or confiscation of 
goods. These things can be no otherwise reconciled, than by 
admitting that he was severe and vindictive in his temper, but 
occasionally checked those inclinations, when his own interest 
was concerned."* 

Such is the judgment of Plutarch on Sylla ; a judgment adop- 
ted by the generality of historians, and unfortunately too well 
substantiated by facts. Still, there are not wanting grave 
authors who, without intending to justify Sylla altogether, yet 
think much less unfavorably of this famous Roman with respect 
to his character as a politician, his motives, and' the acts of his 
public life. Such, in particular, is the view taken of the subject 
by the learned Ferguson, in his History of the progress and 
termination of the Roman Repuhlic.-\ Whether the view be 
accurate or not, is left to the judgment of the reader; but the 
following quotation will serve at least to throw much light on 
this important part of lioman history. 

" Sylla' s resignation throws a new light on his character, and 
leads to a favorable construction of some of the most exception- 
able part of his conduct. When, with the help of the comment 
it affords, we look back to the establishments he made while in 
power, they appear not to be the act of a determined usurper, 
but to be fitted for a republican government, and for the restora- 
tion of that order which the violence and corruption of the times 
had suspended. 

"That he was actuated by a violent resentment of personal 
wrongs, cannot be questioned; but it is likewise evident that he 
felt on proper occasions for the honor and preservation of his 

* Tlutarcli, in Syll. 
-j- See b. ii, 7, towards the end of the chapter. 



b. c. 100—78. MARIUS.— SYLLA. 357 

country, in the noblest sense of these words. ... In his capa- 
city of a political reformer, he had to work on the dregs of a 
corrupted republic. — "Where the gangrene spread in such a body, 
it was likely to require the amputation-knife : however violent 
the remedy, there is reason to believe that Sylla deemed it abso- 
lutely requisite ; — and although the effect fell short of what 
is ascribed to fabulous legislators, yet to none ever were ascribed 
more tokens of magnanimity and greatness of mind.* 

" There remained, in the city, at his death, a numerous body 
of new citizens who bore his name. . . . numbers throughout the 
empire, who owed their safety to his protection, and who ascribed 
the existence of the commonwealth itself to the exertions of his 
great ability and courage : numbers who, although they were 
offended with the severe exercise of his power, yet admired the 
magnanimity of bis resignation. 

u When he was no longer an object of flattery, his corpse was 
carried in procession through Italy at the public expense. The 
fasces, and every other ensign of honor, were restored to the 
dead. Above two thousand golden crowns were fabricated in 
haste, by order of the towns or provinces he had protected, or of 
the private persons he had preserved, to testify their veneration 
for his memory. 

" His merit or demerit in the principal transactions of his life 
may be variously estimated. His having slain so many citizens 
in cold blood, and without any form of law, if we imagine them 
to have been innocent, or if we conceive the republic to have 
been in a state to allow them a trial, must be considered as mon- 
strous or criminal in the highest degree : but if none of the?'. 1 sup- 
positions were just; if they were guilty of the greatest crimes, 
and were themselves the authors of that lawless state to which 
their country was reduced, his having saved the republic from 
the hands of such ruffians, and purged it of the vilest dregs that 
ever threatened to poison a free state, may be considered as 
meritorious." 

* We present here in a few words, taken nearly all from the author 
himself, what he says at much greater length in two successive para- 
graphs. 



858 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VL 



EXPLOITS OF SERTOMUS IN SPAIN, AND OF SPARTACUS IN 
ITALY.— b. c. 80—71. 

After the year b. c. 82, the party of Marius was prostrated 
in Italy; but it continued some years longer in Sicily, Africa, 
and Spain j to Pompey was reserved the honor of crushing its 
last remains in these various regions. Africa and Sicily did not 
cost him much trouble ; but he had terrible difficulties to en- 
counter in Spain. Here the struggle was carried on with great 
vigor and success by Sertorius, probably the best man, and, 
beyond all comparison, the ablest general of the Marian party. 
No leader of an army, during the period of the civil war, sur- 
passed him in wisdom of measures, boldness of execution, in- 
trepidity in danger, and especially skill in taking advantage of, 
the mountains, passes and defiles, in a word, of every part of 
the country. In this respect, he was a second Annibal ; and the % 
Spaniards, among whom the memory of the great Carthaginian 
leader was not yet obliterated, gave him the name of that famous 
general. He deserved it the more, as he knew, like him, by a 
happy mixture of justice, moderation and liberality, how to ac- 
quire and preserve a wonderful influence over the minds of his 
soldiers. 

The natives themselves were taught to place an unbounded 
confidence in Sertorius ; and the astonishing increase of his power, 
far above what they could reasonably expect, confirmed them in 
this disposition. For, with scarcely eight thousand men at first, 
he maintained the contest against four lioman generals, who had 
a hundred and twenty thousand foot, six thousand horse, and 
cities without number under their command ; whilst he, at the 
commencement of his campaigns, had no more than twenty cities. 
Yet, with so trifling a force he subdued several great nations, 
took many cities, and won many battles. The great Pompey 
himself, one of the generals sent against Sertorius, was severely 
handled by him ; being worsted a first and second time, he ran 
the risk of still greater loss, when he was rescued from it by the 
timely assistance of his colleague, Metellus Pius. As Metellus 
was much older than Pompey, Sertorius said on this - occasion : 
"If the old woman had not been here, I would have flogged the 
boy well, and sent him back to P^omc." 

But Sertorius himself had in his own camp a secret enemy 
much more to be feared, than those who opposed him in the field. 
This was Perpenna, his second in command, an ambitious and 



B. c. 80—71. SERTOMUS.— SPARTACUS. 359 

jealous man, who, on account of his high birth and parentage, 
could not bear to hold an inferior rank in the army. To reach 
the object of his ambition, the title of commander-in-chief, he 
treacherously invited Scrtorius to a repast, during which he 
caused this great man to be murdered by a band of assassins 
(b. c. 73). In consequence of this melancholy event, the war in 
Spain was soon brought to an end j Pompey defeated with the 
greatest ease the remains of that party, put Perpenna to death, 
and returned with Metellus Pius to Rome, where they enjoyed 
together the honors of a triumph. 

The struggle against Sertorius and Perpenna was not yet end- 
ed, when a new and more dangerous contest broke out in Italy. 
There prevailed among the Romans a barbarous custom of 
making slaves meet in mortal combat, for the amusement of the 
people, or the diversion of their masters. These unfortunate 
men were chiefly Thracians and Gauls or Germans, but bore the 
common name of gladiators. Seventy or eighty of them, having 
escaped from their place of confinement, retired to some fastness 
on the ascent to Mount Vesuvius, whence they began to harass 
the neighborhood with a terrible warfare. They acknowledged 
for their leader Spartacus, a Thracian captive, whose talents, 
courage and magnanimity raised him far above the servile con- 
dition to which he had been reduced. Success increased his 
numbers ; multitudes of slaves from every quarter flocked to his 
standard, and in a short time gave a very serious appearance to 
the insurrection. 

Spartacus, by his valor and conduct, and even by his wisdom 
and generosity, acquired as much authority as if he had been a 
legal commander. He employed many of his followers in fabri- 
cating arms, and formed the multitudes that resorted to him into 
regular bodies, till at length he collected an army of seventy 
thousand men, which overran the country to a great extent. He 
had already defeated the praetors Clodius, Varinus and Cossinius 
with all their forces ; so that it became necessary to send another 
praetor, Arrius, and the two consuls Gellius and Lentulus, at the 
head of their respective armies, against this formidable enemy. 
But these new generals, although they obtained at first a great 
advantage over a separate body of the insurgents, were in their 
turn signally defeated by Spartacus; shortly after, he likewise re- 
pulsed the proconsul Cassius and the praetor Manlius, and by this 
fresh series of victories, not only retrieved his loss, but even was 
enabled to raise the number of his men to a hundred and twenty 
thousand. 

The Romaus, greatly embarrassed and thrown into some degree 



360 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VI. 

of consternation, at length committed the conduct of their troops 
in Italy to Marcus Crassus, the same who had given proofs of 
judgment and courage in the civil wars under Sylla. Crassus 
assembled no less than six legions, with which he went in search 
of the enemy. Upon his arrival in Lucania, he cut off ten 
thousand men, who were stationed at some distance from the main 
body of their army, and pursuing his advantage, endeavored to 
shut up the rest of their troops in the narrow peninsula of Bru- 
tium. Having failed in this measure, owing to a bold contri- 
vance of Spartacus who forced the lines during the dark, he at 
least closely followed him, harassed him in his flight, and by 
another attack skilfully prepared and well directed, again de- 
stroyed a large number of gladiators. 

The two leaders, at length, came simultaneously to the resolu- 
tion of hazarding a general and decisive battle. Spartacus, in 
order to show his full determination to conquer or to die, killed his 
own charger in presence of all, saying that, "if he were victo- 
rious, he would have plenty of horses, and if conquered, he would 
not stand in need of any. ,; * He fought, indeed, with the most 
undaunted valor, and made his chief attack where he understood 
that the Roman general was posted. He intended to decide the 
action by forcing the Romans in that quarter; but, after much 
bloodshed, after he had killed two centurions with his own hand, 
and made, to the last, extraordinary exertions of courage, he 
himself was wounded, overwhelmed by superior numbers, and 
slain. 

His death gave a complete victory to the Romans; as they 
allowed no quarter, the carnage was frightful, and no fewer than 
forty thousand of the insurgents were put to the sword. More- 
over, soon after the battle, many of the fugitives having rallied 
and formed a body of five thousand, fell into the hands of Pom- 
pey, who had just arrived from Spain, and were cut in pieces. 
This trifling and easy advantage furnished his vanity with a pre- 
tence*for boasting that, not Crassus, but lie had rooted out the 
very seeds of the rebellion. History has been more equitable, 
and every one admits that to Crassus, and to his equally judicious 
and brave conduct, incontestibly belongs the honor of having 
terminated so dangerous a war (b. c. 71). 

*PlutarcL, in the life of Crassus. 



b. c. 74—67. MITHRIDATES.— LUCULLUS. 361 



SECOND WAR AGAINST MITHRIDATES.— SPLENDID VICTORIES 
OF LUCULLUS.— PRIVATE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THIS 
GENERAL.— b. c. 74—67. 

Mithridates, the king of Pontus, had been principally occu- 
pied, since his treaty with Sylla, in devising the proper means to 
renew the war with success. Aware of the difficulties created 
by Sertorius against Rome, he availed himself of them to execute 
his own designs. Having again mustered numerous forces, he 
attacked the possessions or allies of the Romans situated near his 
frontier, and soon recovered the ground which he had recently 
lost in that portion of Asia. Cotta, one of the consuls for the 
year b. c. 74, far from being able to check his advance, was 
himself defeated in two battles; and the conqueror then proceed- 
ed to attack Cyzicum, an important maritime city on the shore 
of the Propontis, and invested it with three hundred thousand 
men by land and four hundred vessels by sea. 

Such was the situation of affairs, when the other Roman con- 
sul arrived at the head of his legions. This was Licinius Lu- 
cullus, formerly one of Sylla' s lieutenants during the first war 
against Mithridates, and now an excellent commander himself, 
the more worthy of admiration, as the first period of his life did 
not seem to promise any thing very remarkable in this respect. 
He had spent his youth in forensic studies; and whilst he ex- 
ercised the office of quaestor in Asia, the province had always 
enjoyed peace. But his natural genius made ample compensation 
for his want of adequate experience. Having employed the time 
of his journey from Rome to the east, partly in consulting expert 
warriors, and partly in reading books of history, he arrived in 
Asia an able commander, though he had left Italy with only an 
imperfect knowledge of the art of warfare.* 

But the science of war was but a secondary quality in Lucullus. 
He displayed, during his expedition, other qualities still more 
worthy of esteem, such as magnanimity towards Cotta, his rash 
and envious colleague, to whom he gave speedy relief in misfor- 
tune ; humanity towards his soldiers, whose blood and lives he 
spared as much as he could; justice and unflinching zeal, to 
repress the rapacity of the Roman farmers and usurers in the 

* Ingenii magnltudo non desideravit usus disciplinam. Itaque cum 
totum iter et navigationem consurapsisset partim in percontando aperi- 
tis, partim in rebus gestis legendis ; in Asiam factus imperator venit, 
cum esset Roma profectus rei militaris rudis.— Cicero Acad. Qucest. b 
iv, n. 2, 

31 



362 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VL 

countries of Asia; in fine, generosity and kindness towards even 
prisoners of war. These noble actions and virtues do more honor 
to Lucullus, than all his splendid victories. 

Mithridates, as we before remarked, had laid siege to Cyzicum, 
a town of considerable importance, and occupied himself in bat- 
tering the place with a vast number of engines. But the defence 
was not less vigorous than the attack, and the besieged made 
prodigious exertions to repel every effort of the assailants, either 
burning their machines, or in a thousand other ways endeavoring 
to render them useless. What encouraged most effectually the 
inhabitants of Cyzicum, was the promise which Lucullus had 
made to them, that if they continued to defend themselves with 
courage, he would surely prevent their city from being taken by 
Mithridates. 

He fully redeemed his pledge, and did even more than he had 
promised. Taking possession of a neighboring height, he, from 
this advantageous post, so annoyed the besiegers by cutting off 
their detachments and convoys, that he made them experience all 
the horrors of famine, and finally compelled them, after fruitless 
efforts during nearly two years, to abandon their undertaking. 
Mithridates withdrew by sea, whilst his generals had orders to 
lead the remnant of their army by land to Lampsacus. Lucullus 
pursued these " fugitives, and overtaking them near the river 
Granicus, killed twenty thousand of them and made a great num- 
ber of prisoners. It is said that the enemy lost in this cam- 
paign nearly three hundred thousand men, including soldiers and 
servants of the army.* The royal fleet met with an equally 
disastrous overthrow ; after being twice defeated by Lucullus, it 
was almost entirely destroyed by a tempest on the Euxine sea. 

The first fruit of so many victories won in a short time, was the re- 
duction of all Bithy nia. The conqueror then advanced by the way of 
Galatia, and entering Pontus, transferred the seat of war into the 
heart of the king's dominions. Mithridates still made some show 
of resistance, but was again routed with his whole army ; nay, 
the victorious Romans followed him so closely, that he was on 
the point of becoming their captive, but, either by accident or by 
the contrivance of that prince, a mule loaded with gold came 
between him and his pursuers. The attention of the soldiers was 
immediately turned to the precious treasure, and while they were 
contending about their booty, a much more important prey, the 
king himself, escaped from their hands (b. c. 72). 

Mithridates, being now stripped alike of all his conquests and 

* Plutarch, in Lucull. 



b. c. 74—67. MITHRIDATES.— LUCULLUS. 3G3 

even of his hereditary kingdom, hastened to seek a refuge at the 
court and obtain the assistance of his son in law, Tigranes, king 
of Armenia. This monarch, who, on account of his great power 
and extensive dominions, was called king of kings, was the per- 
sonification of the despotism and pride of oriental sovereigns. On 
the present occasion, he assembled an army of fifty-five thousand 
horse, of which number seventeen thousand were clad in steel, a 
hundred and fifty thousand heavy-armed infantry, and twenty 
thousand archers or slingers ; besides thirty -five thousand pioneers, 
whose presence gave to the army an appearance of still greater 
strength and number. Lucullus, always indefatigable and in- 
trepid, fearlessly advanced against this numerous host, at the head 
of a body of troops whose whole number did not amount to fifteen 
thousand. 

Tigranes, at the sight of this handful of men, could not refrain 
from smiling, and said : " If they come as ambassadors, they are 
too many; if as soldiers, too few." While he thus indulged with 
his courtiers in railleries and jests, Lucullus was preparing to attack 
him. Some Roman officers remarked to their general that this 
was a very inauspicious day, because on that very day, the sixth 
of October, Caspio's army had been defeated by the Cimbri ; 
" Well," replied Lucullus, " I will make it an ausjricioics one." 
Having said this, and animated his soldiers, he instantly led them 
against the enemy. It required but a moment to break these 
countless battalions bristling with iron and steel, and to throw 
them into irremediable confusion. They did not even strike a 
blow and attempt to defend themselves, but fled in disorder, or 
rather only endeavored to fly, and being slaughtered with the 
greatest ease, they lost one hundred and fifty thousand men ; 
whereas the conquerors had only five men slain in the tumult of 
the action, and about one hundred wounded. 

This battle reflected considerable lustre on Roman valor and 
discipline. The troops of the republic had never engaged, in a 
pitched battle, so great a number of enemies with so few soldiers, 
that is, in the proportion of one to twenty; nor had they ever 
gained so signal a victory with so trifling a loss. Lucullus, above 
all, had won immortal honor both in this particular action and in 
the whole campaign. The ablest and most experienced persons 
in the science of war observed that it was his peculiar praise, to 
have defeated two of the mightiest kings in the world by meth- 
ods entirely different ; the one by a quick, and the other by a 
slow process. For he ruined Mithridates, when in the height of 
his power, by protracting the conflict ; and on the contrary, he 
overthrew Tigranes by the celerity of his movements (b. c. 69.) 



364 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VI 

The result of his last victory was the submission of many coun- 
tries in the neighborhood, and the capture of the royal city of 
Tigranocerta, the booty and spoils of which enriched his army 
The vanquished monarch, learning wisdom from his defeat, now 
sought the friendship of the king of Pontus, in whose absence he 
had purposely fought the last battle, in order not to lose any 
portion of that glory which he had anticipated. The two kings 
levied another army consisting of seventy thousand foot, and 
thirty-five thousand horse. Yet, with this superior force, they 
did not venture to encounter Lucullus in a regular engagement ; 
their plan was to weaken him by degrees, to harass him by fre- 
quent skirmishes, and to endeavor to intercept his convoys, till 
he should be compelled to quit the country for want of provisions. 
This mode of warfare, had his opponents persevered in it, might 
have thrown serious difficulties in the way of Lucullus. The 
Roman general neglected nothing that might bring them to a 
decisive action; he drew a line of circumvallation about their 
camp, laid waste the country before their eyes, but all to no pur- 
pose. He therefore marched against Artaxata, the capital of 
Armenia, where Tigranes had left his family and nearly all his 
treasures, expecting that the king would not suffer that city to be 
taken without making an effort in its defence. 

This last expedient succeeded ; Tigranes, rather than abandon 
so important a place, resolved to fight, and advanced against the 
Romans. Lucullus, on his part, eagerly prepared for battle. He 
so animated his troops by word and example, that the enemy, at 
the first onset, fled in every direction. No flight, however, ap- 
peared more disgraceful than that of Mithridates ; for he could 
not resist even the shouts of the Romans. The defeat of the 
barbarians was entire, although the slaughter was not so great as 
in the battle of the preceding year. 

Lucullus, emboldened by success, resolved to complete the sub- 
jection of the Armenian states. But among the many great and 
noble qualities of this general, one was wanting : he had not the 
talent to win the affection of his troops by kindness; or, perhaps, 
he disdained to obtain it at the cost of firmness and discipline. 
His legions, particularly two of them, had already given several 
marks of indocility ; but when he wished, after his late victory, 
to go forward and finish the work which he had so gloriously be- 
gun, they openly mutinied, and refused to follow him any farther. 
This invincible conqueror of so many enemies was thus checked 
by his own troops in the most prosperous part of his career. 
Being superseded in the command of the army, he returned to 
Rome, where prejudice, party-spirit and jealousy prevented him, 



B. c. 74—67. MITHRIDATES.— LUCULLUS. 365 

for a long time, from obtaining the triumphal honors which he 
had so well deserved. 

Lucullus spent the remainder of his life in comparative obscu- 
rity ; he took little part in the affairs of government, and being 
possessed of immense riches, henceforth made use of them to en- 
joy repose. Nothing was more splendid than his houses, his 
villas, his gardens, and especially his banquets. His furniture 
was of the most costly kind, and his daily repasts remarkable for 
the varied and exquisitely dressed dishes served up at his table. 
On a certain day, as he was taking his evening repast by himself, 
and saw but a moderate supper, he called the steward, and 
expressed his dissatisfaction. The steward answered that, as no 
body was invited, he had not thought it necessary to make a 
greater provision : " What," exclaimed his master, " did you not 
know that Lucullus was to sup with Lucullus V 

As this refined magnificence was the subject of much conver- 
sation in Rome, Cicero and Pompey, then the greatest personages 
of the state, desired to know it from actual observation. For this 
purpose, they addressed Lucullus one day in the forum, when he 
appeared perfectly disengaged. Cicero was one of his most inti- 
mate friends; and, although a serious altercation had occurred 
between Lucullus and Pompey about the command of the army 
in Asia, yet they continued on terms of friendly intercourse, and 
used to converse freely and familiarly with each other. Cicero, 
after the usual salutation, asked Lucullus whether he was at lei- 
sure to receive company; he answered that " nothing would be 
more agreeable/' and pressed them both to come to his house. 
They went together with him, but would not allow him to say 
any thing to his servants, lest he should order them to make some 
addition to the supper provided for himself. Only, at his request, 
they suffered him to tell the steward in their presence, that he 
" would sup in the Apollo;" which was the name of one of his 
most magnificent rooms. By that single word, he eluded the 
vigilance of his two illustrious guests; for each of the dining 
rooms in the house of Lucullus had its particular allowance of 
provisions, service of plate and other furniture, a circumstance 
well known to the servants. Now, the stated expense of an enter- 
tainment in the Apollo was fifty thousand drachms (at least five 
thousand dollars); and the whole sum, says Plutarch, was expen- 
ded that evening. Pompey and Cicero were not less surprised at 
the magnificence of the feast, than at the expedition with which 
it was prepared.* 

* Plutarch in Lucull. 
31* 



366 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VI. 

This manner of living was, it is true, more worthy of an 
eastern prince than of a Roman general ; but it should be observed 
that, whilst Lucullus indulged in such pomp and refinement, he 
also made a noble and generous use of his riches, in obliging his 
friends, patronizing learned men, and collecting books or master- 
pieces of art, etc. A still greater service rendered by him, 
though at less cost, was the transplantation of the Cerastes or 
cherry-tree, which he found near the city of Cerasus in the king- 
dom of Pontus, and which he made known in Europe. 

Lucullus, after the close of his campaigns in Asia, lived ten 
years. At his death he was much and deservedly regretted by 
the Romans; for, notwithstanding his profuse magnificence, it 
would have been difficult to find a man of more exact and strict 
probity. As he had constantly proved himself a generous mas- 
ter, an affectionate relative, and a patriotic citizen, as well as an 
able general, he left behind him the reputation of having been 
Sylla's equal in military glory, and by far his superior in civil and 
social virtues. 

WAR AGAINST THE PIRATES.— EXTRAORDINARY SUCCESS 
AND REPUTATION OE POMPEY.— b. c. 67. 

"When Lucullus could no longer control the Roman legions in 
Asia, the two kings of Pontus and Armenia soon recovered the 
possession of their states. The former, besides, defeated several 
bodies of Roman troops. This new advantage of Mithriclates occa- 
sioned some uneasiness at Rome, and the people began to look on 
Pompey as the only one who could effectually deliver them from 
this implacable and relentless enemy. 

Pompey was now in the most conspicuous part of his career. 
Fortunate in all his undertakings, he had just obtained most sig- 
nal success in a war against the pirates of the Mediterranean sea. 
These pirates, a medley of different nations, although they all 
went by the name of Cilicians, had become within a few years 
absolute masters at sea, from the Asiatic shores to the coasts of 
Spain and the strait of Gibraltar. They interrupted commerce, 
cut off the free communication between the islands and the conti- 
nent, infested the maritime provinces, and having at their com- 
mand upwards of a thousand vessels well equipped and directed 
by skilful pilots, they extended their depredations to every place 
within their reach, to Africa, Sardinia, Sicily, and even to the 
mouth of the Tiber and almost to the very walls of Rome. 

Some expeditions had already been sent against these formida- 
ble banditti; but they cither failed, or produced only a partial 



b. c. 66—63. THIRD WAR AGAINST MITHRIDATES. 367 

and transient check. The boldness as well as the strength of the 
pirates was constantly on the increase. The difficulties of com- 
merce and national intercourse, the scarcity of provisions even at 
Rome, and the insults offered to the Roman power, increased in 
the same proportion; and besides many temples, more than four 
hundred cities had been taken and plundered by these corsairs. 
To put an end to so many evils, it was thought expedient to in- 
vest Pompey for three years with extraordinary power at sea, 
and to supply him with all the forces and means requisite to effect 
the entire overthrow of piracy. For this purpose, five hundred 
ships, with one hundred and twenty-five thousand men and a 
large amount of money for the necessary expenses, were placed 
at his disposal. 

From the beginning of the campaign, Pompey displayed singu- 
lar prudence and judgment in the distribution of his forces; he 
divided the whole of the Mediterranean into thirteen parts, ap- 
pointing a lieutenant for each, to whom he gave command of a 
squadron; by thus stationing his galleys in all quarters, he com- 
pletely hemmed in the pirates, and was enabled to drive them all 
before him. He himself, with sixty of his best vessels, went to 
attack them where the greatest effort was to be made. His plans 
were eminently successful. He indeed displayed during the whole 
expedition so much intelligence and activity, and was so ably se- 
conded by his lieutenants, among others by the celebrated Varro, 
that, instead of the space of three years allowed for the discharge 
of his commission, three months were sufficient to annihilate the 
piratical power. All the forces of these plunderers, their men, 
fleets, harbors and strongholds, dockyards and military stores, fell 
within that short interval, into the hands of the Romans. 

The defeat of the pirates was so complete, so decisive, that, of 
all their hostile squadrons, which a short time before infested all 
maritime countries and even blockaded the mouth of the Tiber 
near Rome, not a galley was now to be seen over all the vast ex- 
tent that stretches from the coasts of Spain to the most eastern 
part of the Mediterranean sea. 



THIRD AND LAST WAR AGAINST MITHRIDATES.— FURTHER 
CONQUESTS OF POMPEY.— AFFAIRS OF PONTUS, ARMENIA, 
SYRIA, AND PALESTINE.— c. c. 66—03. 

Pompey had just achieved this memorable exploit, when news 
reached him from Rome that he had been appointed to a new 
charge, namely, the conduct of the war against Mithridates. He 



368 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VI. 

did not disappoint the confidence reposed in him, and the final 
overthrow of the king of Pontus was the result of one short cam- 
paign. This prince, whom the victories of Lucullus had so much 
humbled, evidently could not oppose, for any length of time, a 
general like Pompey ; being forced to engage in a battle near the 
Euphrates, he experienced so signal a defeat, that no resource 
was left him but a precipitate flight. The king of Armenia, un- 
willing to support his cause any longer, refused him every kind 
of shelter and assistance, declared him an enemy, and set a price 
of a hundred talents upon his head. 

In this distress, the unhappy monarch, although abandoned by 
others, did not yet despond. Going forward, with all possible 
speed, he advanced, notwithstanding a thousand obstacles, along 
the coasts of the Euxine sea, and finally reached the Cimmerian 
Bosphorus, where one of his sons possessed a princely establish- 
ment. Pompey pursued him at first, but not being able to over- 
take him, contented himself with chastising by severe defeats the 
Albanians and Iberians, two warlike tribes of Mount Caucasus, 
who had attempted to oppose the passage of the Romans (b. c. 65). 

Most of the eastern states were at that time in a deplorable 
condition. Above all, the kingdom of Syria, formerly so flour- 
ishing and extensive, had been reduced to the lowest degree of 
weakness by foreign attacks, civil dissensions, and the incapacity 
or profligacy of its sovereigns. As it happened to be in some 
measure involved in the cause of Tigraues whom the Ptomans had 
previously defeated, Pompey seized upon this occasion to subdue 
that kingdom, and made it a Roman province (b. c. 61). 

From Syria he was called into Palestine. The new sovereignty 
of Judea, founded by Judas Maehaha3us and his brothers Jonathan 
and Simon, had continued in the line of their descendants ) but 
it did not preserve long the high degree of respectability and 
power which it had enjoyed under the first Machabees, and under 
Hircanus I, the worthy son and successor of Simon. Whilst Pom- 
pey was extending throughout the whole east the influence and 
authority of Rome, the sovereign power among the Jews was dis- 
puted by two brothers, Hircanus II and Aristobulus. They 
appealed to the Roman general for the adjustment of their differ- 
ences. Pompey summoned them before him, and having listened 
to their reasons, easily perceived that the better claim was on the 
side of Hircanus; Aristobulus, on his part, easily conjectured 
that the decision would be against him, and to avoid such a re- 
sult, he prepared to assert his pretensions by open force. This 
conduct exasperated Pompey, who immediately marched his troops 
towards Jerusalem, and entered the city as a conqueror. He re- 



b. c. 6G— €3. THIRD WAR AGAINST MITHRIDATES. 369 

instated Hircanus in the dignity of high-priest, but took from 
him the title and insignia of king ; he moreover obliged the Jews, 
not only to restore the cities and territories which they had con- 
quered from the Syrians, but likewise to pay a considerable tri- 
bute to the Roman government. 

Thus did the unhappy discord of two brothers become a source 
of evils for the Jewish nation, and the greatest among the natural 
causes of its decline. It changed the friendly protection which 
the country had sought and obtained from the Romans, into a 
beginning of subjection to their power, as the Jews themselves, 
however reluctantly, acknowledged under the form of tribute.* 
Nor did the course of their national depression stop here. A few 
years later, the leaders of the government at Rome transferred 
the Jewish sceptre to a foreign prince, the famous Herod the 
IduniEean. This transaction is the more worthy of notice as it 
was, conformably to the prediction of the holy patriarch Jacob,-)- 
one of the signs immediately preceding the coming of the Mes- 
sias, whose temporal birth really occurred before the end of He- 
rod's reign. 

While Pompey was engaged in these momentous affairs, the 
career of Mithridates was drawing to its close. This restless and 
indefatigable prince, who could no longer face the Romans in Asia, 
had resolved to carry the war from the Euxine shores, through 
the greater part of Europe, into Italy. But his soldiers had not 
the same courage with himself. They refused to follow him in 
this perilous and gigantic expedition, and openly revolted against 
him, proclaiming his son Pharnaces, king in his place. This 
young prince was more eager than any one to deprive his father 
of both crown and life. Mithridates, reduced to this terrible ex- 
tremity, and utterly unable to escape, distributed poison among 
the persons of his family, and took some himself; still, as the fre- 
quent use which he had made of antidotes prevented, it is said, 
the poison from having its effect on him, he had recourse to a 
more expeditious means, and caused himself to be despatched with 
a sword, at the age of seventy-two, after a reign of sixty years 
(b. c. 64 or 63). 

Thus perished the famous Mithridates Eupator, who during 
thirty years had waged war against the Romaus. His death, oc- 
casioned by the horrid crime of parricide, is dreadful even to 
relate; unfortunately for the character of that prince, it had been 
too well merited by his own crimes, and may be viewed as a part of the 
just punishment of one who, in order to gratify his jealousy, re- 
sentment and ambition, spared neither his mother, nor wives, nor 

* See Joseplius, Jeivish Antiq. b. xiv, c. 5 — 8. f Gen. xlix, 10. 



870 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VI. 

children, nor myriads of friends and foes. In other respects and 
in natural talents, Mithridates was a remarkable man, a vast ge- 
nius, a scholar acquainted with twenty-two languages ; a politician, 
a warrior, a general, and, by his implacable animosity against the 
Romans, another Annibal; one, too, who resisted them longer 
than any other monarch or commander, and who could not be 
fully overthrown but by the successive attacks of three of the 
ablest generals of Rome.* 

When Pompey was informed of his death, he returned to the 
north of Lesser Asia, where many affairs were yet to be settled. 
Pontus remained a Roman province; Tigranes was acknowledged 
king of Armenia, and Pharnaces allowed to possess the kingdom 
of the Bosphorus under the protection of the Romans. Care was 
likewise taken to bestow suitable' rewards both on the victorious 
legions and on the faithful allies of the republic. After making 
all these arrangements, Pompey at last set out for Italy, and made 
his entry into Rome, with a ponip and solemnity proportioned to the 
greatness of his exploits : the solemn inscriptions prepared for his 
triumph stated that he had conquered the pirates and twelve orien- 
tal nations, and besides the capture of eight hundred galleys, 
had subdued nineteen hundred cities or fortresses. He brought 
into the public treasury, in money and in gold or silver vessels, 
the value of twenty thousand talents (at least twenty millions of 
dollars), and, by the vast acquisition of territory he had made for 
the state, caused its revenues to be nearly doubled. 

But, in the midst of all this splendor and glory, the most honor- 
able circumstance for Pompey, and one, too, which no Roman 
before him could claim, was, that his third triumph was over the 
third quarter of the earth, after his former triumphs had been 
over the two other continents. His first triumph was over Africa, 
the second over Europe, and the third over Asia; so that the 
three together seemed to declare him conqueror of the world. 

* This is, in substance, the idea which the Greek and even the Roman 
historians give us of Mithridates. 

" Ponticarum gentium rex," says Florus, " omnium longe maximus 
Mithridates: quippe cum quatuor Pyrrho, decern et septem anni Anni- 
bali suffecerint, ille per quadraginta annos restitit, donee tribus ingen- 
tibus bellis subactus, felicitate Sullre, virtute Luculli, magnitudine 
Pompeii consumeretur." — b. iii, c. 5. 

The following are the words of Velleius Paterculus: "Mithridates, 
Ponticus rex, vir neque silendus, neque dicendus sine cura, bello acer- 
rimus, aliquando fortuna, semper animo maximus, consiliis dux, miles 
manu, odio in Romanos Annibal." — b. ii, c. 14. 



b. c. 63— G2. CICERO.— CATILINE. 371 



CONSULATE OF CICERO.— CATILINE'S CONSPIRACY DE- 
TECTED AND SUPPRESSED.— b. c. 63—62.* 

Whilst Pompey was extending the glory of Rome to the ex- 
tremities of the world, and only one year before his return, the 
very existence of the commonwealth was threatened by a most 
dangerous conspiracy. Sergius Catiline, a senator of high rank, 
great bodily strength, daring mind, and consummate profligacy, 
conceived the awful design of slaughtering the senate, firing the 
city of Rome, and overturning the republic. For the execution 
of this horrid plot, accomplices were needed. Catiline secured a 
large number of them, by applying to persons equally profligate 
with himself, men lost to every sense of honor and duty, and 
loaded with debts and crimes. Citizens of this description were 
then easily found in Rome. The expected abolition of their debts, 
the plunder of the rich, and the hope of preferments and dignities 
in the new government to be created by their intervention, were 
so many ties which attached them to their desperate leader. 

Catiline was not so much occupied in the organization of his 
plot, as not to endeavor, by every means in his power, to obtain 
the supreme magistracy in the government which he intended 
to overthrow; nay, he hoped that the dignity of consul, if he 
could once possess it, would be the best means to promote his se- 
cret views. He therefore presented himself among the candidates 
for the consulship. In a city in which almost every preferment 
could be obtained through cabal and intrigue, there was a strong 
probability of success in his favor. Most happily for all good 
citizens and for the state at large, the secret of the conspiracy 
began to be disclosed by one of the accomplices. The informa- 
tion, imperfect as it was, spread great terror among the people ; 
Catiline was rejected, and all the suffrages fell to M. Tullius 
Cicero, his competitor. 

No better choice could have been made in the existing crisis. 
The name of Cicero awakes the idea of the highest talent, elo- 
quence, and patriotism. He had already pleaded at the bar with 
extraordinary renown ; he had honorably acquitted himself of the 
offices of quaestor, aedile and praetor, and manifested in every em- 
ployment his love of justice and zeal for the public good. The 

* From Velleius Paterc. b. ii, c. 24 ; Plutarch, in the life of Cicero ; — ■ 
the eloquent speeches of Cicero himself; and especially Sallust's admi- 
rable work on the Conspiracy and War of Catiline, 



372 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VI. 

more he advanced in the career of honors, the more these valua- 
ble qualities appeared in him, and, together with them, exquisite 
judgment, prudence, vigilance, activity, and in a word, all the ne- 
cessary qualifications to rescue the state from a terrible and press- 
ing danger. This great man was appointed consul, with C. An- 
tonius for his colleague, for the year B. c. 63. 

Catiline, rendered still more furious by the ill-success of his 
intrigues, determined to dispatch Cicero by assassination. Two 
of the conspirators were directed to obtain admittance into the 
consul's house under pretence of a visit, and to murder him with- 
out delay ; but Cicero received timely intelligence of this daring 
attempt, and rendered it abortive. He, moreover, placed guards 
and bodies of troops in every quarter of the city, so that Rome 
wore the appearance of a fortified and well garrisoned place threat- 
ened with a siege. 

So many vigorous measures did not intimidate the man against 
whom they were directed. He still presumed to take his seat in 
the senate. As his criminal projects were now sufficiently known, 
he received no salutation ; on the contrary, all the senators re- 
moved from him, and vacated the seats near that which he occu- 
pied. The consul, fired with indignation at the sight of so much 
audacity united with so much .guilt, addressed him in the most 
vehement language, as one convicted of high-treason and worthy 
of death. Catiline endeavored in vain to vindicate himself; the 
senators, more and more indignant, interrupted him with cries of 
traitor, conspirator, public enemy, and parricide. Transported 
with rage, he abruptly left the assembly, and quitting the city, 
hastened to join the troops whom his partisans had assembled for 
him at some distance from Rome. 

But the chief accomplices of Catiline still remained in the cap- 
ital, men of high standing, and, like him, ready for every crime; 
at his departure, he had given them directions to procure, by 
every means in their power, the murder of the consul and the 
firing of the city. Cicero, ever watchful, detected and exposed 
these new machinations, and had the happiness to prevent their 
execution. By his orders, which were ratified by the senate, the 
ringleaders of the plot were arrested, convicted, and immediately 
condemned to suffer capital punishment. 

In all this proceeding, Cicero was vigorously supported by Cato 
surnamed the Younger, one of the most distinguished senators 
and influential persons of his time. This virtuous citizen, then 
about thirty -three years old, had followed from his early years a 
course very different from that of the degenerate Roman youth, 
and, both by disposition and education, was averse to the law- 



CATO THE YOUNGER. 373 

less, principles which had crept into the politics and manners of 
the age. On the day on which the fate of the conspirators was 
to be decided in the senate, he perceived that most of the senators, 
persuaded by the eloquence of Julius Csesar, whose ambitious 
principles tended rather to encourage than suppress innovations, 
were inclined to milder measures than the safety of the republic 
demanded. This filled his soul with sentiments of indignation 
and alarm. He boldly protested against the pusillanimity of his 
colleagues, as well as the dangerous tendency of Caesar's views. 
He spoke with so much eloquence, vehemence and energy; he 
depicted in such vivid colors the virtue of the consul, the wretch- 
edness of the conspirators, and the greatness of the public danger 
in the threatened subversion of the state, as well as the ruin and 
conflagration of the city, that a complete change was wrought in 
the minds of the senators. They retracted their former votes, and 
agreeably to the opinion of both Cato and Cicero, unanimously 
decreed the death and immediate execution of the criminals. 

The news of their punishment was a thunderbolt for Catiline. 
Deprived of all hope and resource in Rome, where the influence 
of his party had been destroyed, he determined, by a rapid march 
towards the north of Italy, to cross the mountains, and escape 
with his followers into Gaul. But he found it impossible to ex- 
ecute his design ; and seeing himself beset by two Roman armies, 
resolved to hazard a battle. After exhorting his troops to con- 
quer or die, he set them an example of courage, and with indom- 
itable fury rushed against his opponents. 

This example was faithfully imitated : of all the followers of 
Catiline, none perished without having fought bravely, and most 
fell in the very spot which they had first occupied. Their despe- 
rate leader fell together with them, covered with wounds. He 
was found among heaps of the dead, still breathing, aud showing 
on his countenance the same fierceness and audacity which had 
always actuated him, and caused him to be so much dreaded by 
all virtuous citizens. His bloody designs perished with him; and 
Cicero, to whose activity and zeal Rome owed her preservation, 
received from the gratitude of his citizens the glorious surname 
of Father of his country. 



CATO THE YOUNGER. 

Although Cato the Younger acted only a secondary part in 
the great events of his time, his virtue however placed him so 
high in the public esteem, and gave him such an influence among 



374 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VI. 

the good citizens of Rome, that scarcely any character mentioned 
in ancient history is more deserving of notice. Besides this, 
nothing perhaps affords a better insight into the state of affairs 
at that period, than the life of this illustrious Roman. 

Cato the Younger was the great-grandson of the famous censor 
Cato, who lived in the interval between the second and third Pu- 
nic wars. The austere virtues of the one had ranked him with 
persons of the greatest reputation and authority in Rome. The 
enthusiastic and unflinching patriotism of the other, the object of 
this article, rendered him still more illustrious. It is related of 
him, that from his infancy he discovered in his voice, his look, 
and his very diversions, a steadiness and firmness of soul which 
neither passion nor any thing else could move. He pursued every 
object he had in view with a vigor far above his years, and a re- 
solution that nothing could resist. Those who were inclined to 
flatter, were sure to meet with a severe rebuke; and with regard 
to those who attempted to intimidate him, he was still more 
inflexible. 

Whilst Cato was yet a boy, during Sylla's administration, his 
preceptor often took him to pay his respects to the dictator. The 
house of Sylla at that time looked like a place of execution, so 
great were the number of people put to death by his orders. Cato, 
who was in his fourteenth year, seeing the heads of many illus- 
trious personages carried out, and observing that the bystanders 
deplored these scenes of blood, asked why there was no body who 
would undertake to kill that man. "The reason," answered his 
preceptor, " is because they fear him still more than they hate 
him." "Why then," said Cato, "do you not give me a sword, 
that I may kill him, and deliver my country from slavery ?" 
When the preceptor heard him speak thus, and saw the stern and 
angry look which accompanied his language, he was greatly 
alarmed, and closely watched him afterwards, to prevent him 
from attempting any rash action. 

Cato had the happiness to be under excellent masters. His 
favorite study was the Stoic philosophy, the best suited to his dis- 
position. He eagerly embraced the course of a moral and virtuous 
life ; but among all the virtues, he evinced the greatest attachment 
to justice, and justice, too, of that severe and inflexible kind which 
is biassed by neither favor nor compassion. Hence, although 
humane and compassionate in private society, he was in public 
the inexorable avenger of wrongs. Seeing that a great reforma- 
tion was needed in the customs and manners of his country, he 
determined to take a stand against the corrupt fashions of the 
time. Not that he affected to be noticed on this account; but 



CATO THE YOUNGER. 375 

he wished to acquire the habit of never being ashamed of any 
thing but what was really shameful, and of disregarding what 
depended only on human opinion. Even in the midst of riches, 
he chose a simple and frugal manner of living, took most labor- 
ious exercise, inured himself to all the inconveniences of the 
weather, and travelled on foot at every season of the year. 

Cato served as a volunteer in the war with Spartaeus, but 
could not signalize his courage and activity as he desired, be- 
cause the war then was ill-conducted. Still, amidst the effemi- 
nacy and luxury which prevailed in the army, he faithfully ob- 
served discipline, and when the occasion offered itself, behaved 
with so much spirit and valor as well as coolness and capacity, 
that he appeared not in the least inferior to Cato the Censor. 
Grellius, his general, made him an offer of the best military re- 
wards, which he refused, saying that he had done nothing worthy 
of such a recompense. 

He was shortly after sent into Macedon in the capacity of 
tribune, and had the command of a legion. In this post, he 
thought it no great nor extraordinary thing to be distinguished 
by his personal virtue; it was his ambition to make all the 
troops under his care, like himself. With this view he abated 
nothing in the requisite and proper use of his authority, but, at 
the same time, called reason to its assistance. By instruction 
and persuasion, no less than by rewards and punishments, he 
succeeded so well, that it was difficult to say whether his troops 
were more peaceable or warlike, more valiant or more just. By 
his virtue, his magnanimity, and especially by doing first what 
he commanded others to do, he so perfectly won the respect and 
affection of all, that, when his commission expired, the soldiers 
could not refrain from tears at his departure, and gave him such 
marks of esteem, as few generals met with from the Romans in 
those times. 

But Rome itself was to be the chief theatre of Cato's eloquence 
and magnanimity. On his return to that city, and as soon as he 
was admitted to offices of state, he declared and showed him- 
self the open enemy of injustice, fraud, intrigue and corruption; 
his manly spirit of integrity appeared in every thing, though he 
evinced it chiefly in fulfilling the office of quaestor or public trea- 
surer. Before assuming this charge, he had qualified himself for 
it, by acquiring a thorough knowledge of all the laws and matters 
connected with its various obligations. By his indefatigable ap- 
plication and zeal, he so well cleared this important branch of the 
administration of the many abuses that had crept into it, and of 
the corrupt practices of its officers, as to render the treasury 



376 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VI. 

more respectable than the senate itself; and it was commonly 
thought and said, that Cato had given to the qusestorship all the 
dignity of the consulate. 

He performed in the same manner the functions of tribune of 
the people, and prastor, to which he was successively appointed. 
Yet, in no capacity, perhaps, did he appear so worthy of praise, 
as in that of senator. Whenever the senate was summoned, he was 
the first in his place, and the last to withdraw ; he would, on 
such occasions, neither absent himself from town, nor undertake 
any other business. For, his attention to the concerns of gov- 
ernment was not, as is too frequently the case, guided by views 
of honor and profit, nor the mere effect of chance or humor; but 
he thought "that a good citizen ought to be as solicitous about 
the public good, as a bee is about her hive." 

In deliberations, measures for the support of order and moral- 
ity were sure to find in him a powerful defender; those of a con- 
trary nature, a formidable opponent. He made it a point to op- 
pose Clodius, the seditious demagogue so famous in the history of 
those times, who was always proposing some dangerous law or 
some change in the constitution, or accusing the most respecta- 
ble persons before the people. But Cato defended the cause of 
these injured persons so well, that Clodius was forced to withdraw 
in great confusion, and leave the city. As Cicero, who had been 
deeply interested in this particular for a near relative, came to 
thank his friend, Cato said to him: "You ought to thank our 
common countiy, whose welfare is the spring of all my actions." 
Indeed, very different in some respect from this great orator, he 
cared little for human applause : he preferred, according to the 
expression of Sallust, rather to be good than to appear so ; but 
the less he sought after glory, the more it followed him.* His 
reputation and the esteem entertained for him were so great, that 
Cicero once said that Cato might do without Rome, but Home 
could not do without Cato.f 

Yet this distinguished man was never raised to the consulship, 
although he once presented himself as a candidate for that digni- 
ty. His failure, however, was in some measure a new homage 
to his virtue. As bribery, fraud, and intrigues had the greatest 
share in the election of magistrates, Cato moved and procured- 
decrees from the senate against these infamous practices; the 
measure highly tlispleased the people, because it cut off at once 

* Esse quain videri bonus malebat ; ita quo minus gloriam petebat, 
eo magis absequebatur. — Sallust, Bellum Qatilin. n. 5-4. 
f Plutarch, in the life of Cato the Younger. 



b. c. 60, FIRST TRIUMVIRATE. 377 

the means of cultivating favor and making use of bribes, and thus 
rendered the lower order of citizens poor and insignificant. On 
the other hand, Cato had personally too much elevation of senti- 
ments, too much dignity, to court the popular favor by entreaties 
or flatteries. Under circumstances of this description, and with 
so little chance of success in his behalf, it is not to be wondered 
that he lost the consulship. Nor did the loss afflict him, at least 
in any perceptible degree : whilst an accident of this kind filled 
other candidates with shame and sorrow, Cato was so little affected 
by it, that he anointed himself to play at ball, and walked as 
usual after dinner with his friends in the forum. 

But if he failed to obtain the consular dignity, he at least ably 
supported the consuls, whenever occasion required. This he did 
most effectually, as has been already related, during the turbu- 
lent times of Catiline, when the state was threatened with total 
subversion. Next to Cicero's vigorous counsels and conduct, the 
energy of Cato, in that dreadful danger, most .contributed to save 
the commonwealth and the city of Rome. 

After this tempest was over, new storms arose, which called 
forth, more than ever, the efforts of his patriotic zeal and forti- 
tude. He had then to contend against both Pompey and Caesar^ 
the two most aspiring men of the state, who wished to have the 
whole authority in their hands. He boldly opposed the doubtful 
measures of the one and the crafty ambition of the other, and 
with much personal danger, endeavored to remove the new perils 
that threatened the existing government* Nor did the want of 
success ever turn him from the line of duty which he had adop- 
ted : he persevered in that course with unabated constancy to the 
end of his life; not being able to save the public liberty, he per- 
ished with it, and was buried, as it were, under its ruins. Happy 
would it have been for his character and reputation, if he had 
not tarnished the lustre of his otherwise admirable conduct, by 
excessive sternness, by obstinacy, and by suicide ! 



FIRST TRIUMVIRATE,— POMPEV, JULIUS CESAR, AND CRAS- 
SUS.— b. c. 60. 

We have now to speak at greater length of Julius Csesar, that 
famous Roman whose name is so prominent in the history of the 
world. No nation ever produced a more gifted individual as to 
natural talents, no politician exercised a more extensive and pow- 
erful influence over his contemporaries, no leader of armies won 
more laurels and erected more trophies in every part of the earth 

32* 



378 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VI. 

Besides these titles to imperishable fame, Caesar was character- 
ized by an unbounded liberality, and a generosity and clemency 
towards his enemies which almost surpassed the glory of his 
exploits. Even in point of strictly mental endowments, he chal- 
lenges unqualified admiration. The rapidity of his conceptions 
seemed to equal the lightning's speed; his genius appeared vast 
as the universe; his language was dignified and at the same time 
almost irresistible; amidst the turmoils of politics and war, he 
wrote annals which have ranked him among the best historians; 
and, as an orator, he would have been the successful rival of 
Cicero, had he chosen to follow the career of eloquence. 

Unfortunately, both for others and for himself, he chose to fol- 
low a very different course : his aim was to become, by all means, 
exclusive and absolute master of the empire. To the attainment 
of this object he sacrificed every thing, his repose, his safety, 
his existence, his country, and the tranquillity of the world. 

Caius Julius Caesar was born in the year b. c. 99, of the an- 
cient and noble family of the Julii. Some maintain, that his 
birth was accompanied with many presages of future greatness. 
If, indeed, we were to believe that nature gives of its own accord 
an intimation of future events, we should not be surprised that 
its most ominous signs were employed to mark the birth of a 
personage destined to change the face of the whole political 
world, and to place Rome herself, with all the nations she had 
conquered, under the iron rod of military government. 

At the age of eighteen, Caesar was placed by Sylla in the list 
of the proscribed, for disobedience to his orders. He was saved, 
however, by the intercession of some common friends, and as they 
insisted that there was no necessity of putting such a boy to 
death: " Beware of him/' said Sylla; "your sagacity is limited 
indeed, if you do not see many a Marius in that young man;" a 
remark which proved at once the penetration of Sylla, and the 
early appearance of something extraordinary in Caesar. 

When the words of Sylla were reported to Caesar, he at first 
concealed himself in the country of the Sabines, and afterwards 
embarked for Asia. Shortly after he was taken by pirates, who 
asked him twenty talents for his ransom. Caesar laughed at their 
demand, as implying their ignorance of the quality of the person 
whom they had made prisoner, and instead of twenty, he promised 
them fifty talents (at least fifty thousand dollars). To raise 
the money, he sent most of his attendants to different cities, and 
in the mean time remained among the corsairs. Although they 
considered murder as a trifle, he did not betray the least symp- 
tom of fear ; nay he held them in great contempt, and, when- 



b. c. GO. FIRST TRIUMVIRATE. 379 

ever he went to sleep, if they annoyed him by their clamors, 
sent them orders to keep silence. 

Caesar lived in this manner among them as if they had been 
his guards and not his keepers, for the space of thirty-eight days. 
Fearless and secure, he joined in their diversions, wrote poems 
and orations which he rehearsed in their presence, and when they 
expressed no admiration, called them a set of ignorant peoplo 
and barbarians. He gained such an ascendancy over their minds, 
that he often threatened to punish them by crucifixion; whilst 
they, taking his language in jest, were delighted with the man- 
ners of their captive, which they ascribed to a facetious disposi- 
tion. But as soon as the money was brought for his ransom, 
and he had recovered his liberty, he manned some vessels in the 
port of Miletus, and embarking again, pursued and took his 
captors. He left them prisoners at Pergamus, whilst he him- 
self hastened to Junius Silanns, the praetor or proconsul of 
Bithynia, and applied for an order to have them executed ; being 
refused by this officer, he made his way back with still greater 
celerity, and, before any contrary instructions could arrive, 
caused the banditti to be crucified. 

On his return to Rome after the death of Sylla, he began to 
exert his manifold talents to gain partisans. The eloquence with 
which he defended persons under indictments, procured him con- 
siderable influence j and, by his engaging manners, address and 
condescension, he easily found access to the hearts of the people. 
At the same time, the magnificence of his suite and his manner 
of living gradually increased his power, and brought him into the 
administration. Those who envied him, imagined that his pecuniary 
resources would be soon exhausted, and therefore made no great 
accounts of his popularity j but when it had reached such a height 
as scarcely to admit of any restraint, and manifested a tendency 
to ruin the constitution, then, says Plutarch, they discovered, 
though much too late, that no beginnings are to be despised, be- 
cause small beginnings become great by continuance, and the very 
contempt which is at first entertained for them, gives them an 
opportunity to acquire a strength which is almost irresistible. 

Cicero seems to have been the first who suspected the dangerous 
tendency of Caesar's political designs. The project of this ambi- 
tious man against the state more and more visibly appeared in 
his increasing efforts to gain popular favor by exhibitions and 
largesses, in his exertions to revive the party of Marius, and in 
the language that he occasionally used in presence of his friends. 
Having one day come to a small town, they who accompanied 
him took occasion to say, by way of amusement : " Can there be 



380 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VI. 

in this village any rivalry for office, any contentions for prece- 
dency, and such envy and ambition as we see among the great V 
Cassar answered with great seriousness: "I had rather be first 
here than second in Rome." On another occasion, seeing, accor- 
ding to Suetonius,* a statue of Alexander the Great, or, according 
to Plutarchjf reading a portion of that conqueror's life, he paused, 
sighed, and burst into tears. Being asked the reason of so much 
affliction, he exclaimed : " Do you think I have not sufficient rea- 
son to grieve, when Alexander, at my age (thirty-three years), 
had already conquered the world, and I have not yet performed 
one glorious achievement." 

In consequence of this principle of ambition and glory, he from 
that time gave himself up entirely to the agitations of public life, 
and having obtained the government of Spain, applied to business 
with great activity and diligence. His first care, when he arrived 
in his province, was to increase the number of the troops under 
his command. He then marched against the Gallicians and Lusi- 
tanians, defeated them, and advancing as far as the ocean, reduced 
cities and nations on his way, that had not hitherto felt the 
Roman yoke. With the same ability which he displayed in the 
conduct of the war, he supported the dignity of Roman governor, 
no less in the civil than in the military department. By this 
means, he gave tranquillity 4o the province, confirmed and exten- 
ded the Roman power, and gained great reputation for himself. 

After this expedition, Caesar, having returned to Rome, set 
more seriously than ever to the work of undermining the estab- 
lished form of government, and gradually concentrating the whole 
authority of the state in his person. In so dangerous an attempt, 
he proceeded with cautious and artful steps. This crafty politi- 
cian was well aware that his designs would be opposed by Cato, 
Cicero, and other illustrious citizens, the enemies of all political 
innovation and sincerely attached to the cause of the republic. 
To prevent or paralyze their efforts, he closely united his interests 
with those of Pompey and Crassus, the two most powerful men 
in Rome, the one on account of his renown, the other on account 
of his wealth, and formed with them the famous confederacy 
known under the name of First Triumvirate (b. c. 60). They 
agreed to take such measures in support of one another, and give 
such a turn to the course of public affairs, as to jetain the chief 
power of the state constantly in their hands. Caesar intended, of 
course, that the greatest share of authority should belong to him- 
self; hence, every one of his political acts tended ultimately to 

* In C. J. Ccesar, n. 7. f Life of J. Ccesar. 



b. c. 60. FIRST TRIUMVIRATE. 381 

this end, and he had the talent to make his very colleagues the 
tools of his ambition. 

He first succeeded, through their influence, in being appointed 
to the consulship for the ensuing } T car (b. c. 59). He had no 
sooner entered upon this office, than he directed all his efforts to 
weaken the influence of the senate, and to ingratiate himself with 
the people. For that purpose, he made and enforced motions not 
so suitable to a consul as to a seditious tribune, and rousing the 
hopes of the populace about the distribution of corn and the divi- 
sion of lands, proposed bills entirely calculated to please the ple- 
beian party. As the cautious and patriotic party of the senate 
opposed them, Cassar was furnished with the pretext that he had 
long wanted. He protested with great warmth, "that they threw 
him into the arms of the people against his will; and that tho 
rigorous and disgraceful opposition of the senators laid him under 
a painful necessity of seeking protection from the commoners." 
He did so, and during his consulate never more consulted the 
senate on any affair. 

The other consul was Calpurnius Bibulus, a friend of Cato, and 
like him an intrepid defender of liberty. Being supported by the 
most distinguished senators, he vigorously opposed every motion 
in favor of the agrarian law, but to no purpose ; Caesar drove his 
opponent from the forum by open force, and caused the law to 
pass without further resistance. Bibulus finding that his oppo- 
sition not only was unsuccessful, but even exposed his life to 
danger in the public assemblies, remained shut up in his house 
during the remainder of the year, and contented himself with 
publishing edicts and manifestoes against Caesar's tyranny. The 
latter laughed at the protests of his colleague, and assuming the 
whole administration, continued to act as if he had been sole 
consul and sole magistrate. Hence in dating the year during 
which these transactions occurred, instead of being called the year 
of the consulate of Julius Ccesar and 6W^;?/r«i«s Bihulus, it was 
called by some wag the consulate of Julius and Cos,/,-. 

This able adventurer, though suspected of the deepest and 
most obnoxious designs, was still deeper in laying his measures 
for their execution, than even his keenest opponents imagined. 
He had already been successful in his effort, as supreme magis- 
trate, to set at defiance the whole power of the senate and the 
regular forms of government. The next and chief step which he 
took for the carrying out of his views, was to have himself 
appointed proconsul for five years, with the whole territory of 
Gaul, both Transalpine and Cisalpine, for his j>rovince. This 
commission gave him what he most earnestly desired, a fair occa- 



382 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VI. 

sion to display his military skill, a sure means to increase his 
fame, and above all, a numerous army placed at his disposal and 
devoted to his interest. 

CONQUEST OF GAUL BY JULIUS CiESAR.— b. c. 58—50. 

The province of which Caesar obtained the command, compre- 
hended, as has just been observed, under the denomination of the 
two Gauls, considerable territories on both sides of the Alps. 
Cisalpine Gaul included all the northern part of Italy, from the 
mountains to the Rubicon near Ariminum, and from the Adriatic 
to the Tyrrhenian or Tuscan sea. Transalpine Gaul, thus called 
from its being situated beyond the Alps with regard to Rome, 
comprised the whole territory from the Mediterranean sea to the 
Rhine and the Mouse. The southern part of this tract already 
formed a Roman province ; the remainder of the country was divi- 
ded into three principal parts, occupied by the Aquitani, the 
Celtse, and the Belgse, nations differing in language, establish- 
ments, and customs. 

" The several Gallic tribes were usually independent of each 
other, but on great occasions a general council of the nation was 
summoned, especially when preparations were made for any of the 
great migrations which proved so fatal to Greece and Italy. 
Their superior valor rendered these tribes very formidable to all 
the southern nations; it was commonly said, that the Romans 
fought with others for conquest, but with the Gauls for actual 
existence. ' ; But from the time of the subjugation of their country 
by Julius Caesar, their valor seemed to have disappeared together 
with their liberty ; they never revolted, except when the extor- 
tions of their rulers became insupportable ; and their efforts were 
neither vigorous nor well-directed. In no province did Roman 
civilization produce greater effects than in Gaul; many public 
works of stupendous size and immense utility were constructed; 
roads were constructed and paved with stone; durable bridges 
were built, and aqueducts formed to supply the cities with water. 
The ruins of these mighty works are still to be found, and they 
cannot be viewed without wonder and admiration. "* 

Such was the nation and country in which Caesar, after having 
shown himself at Rome an intriguing citizen and a factious magi- 
strate, appeared as the greatest of warriors. Gaul became the 
theatre of so many illustrious exploits, as almost threw into the 
shade the preceding achievements of the greatest Roman generals, 
whilst it. is probable that they never were surpassed afterwards, 

* Taylor, Manual of Ancient History, pp. 243, 244. 



b. c. 58—50. -CONQUEST OF GAUL. 3S3 

and perhaps never will be surpassed by those of any conqueror. 
The particulars of this famous war may be seen in the admirable 
annals or Commentaries written by Caesar himself. No people 
however brave, no army however numerous, could resist him. In 
less than ten years, he took eight hundred towns, conquered three 
hundred nations or tribes, and defeated, in a series of engagements, 
three millions of men, one million of whom were slain on the field 
of battle, and as many taken prisoners. This multitude of ex- 
ploits and victories might at first seem incredible ; yet they can 
hardly be called in question, since the account of them is corrob- 
orated by the testimony of Plutarch, in the life of Julius Caesar, 
and besides Caesar himself, by other Roman historians, Suetonius, 
Florus, etc. 

His first expedition in Gaul was against the Helvetians and 
Tigurini, who, after having burnt twelve of their own towns and 
four hundred villages, endeavored to traverse the Roman province 
in search of new settlements. Their total number amounted to 
nearly four hundred thousand persons, ninety-two thousand of 
whom were able to bear arms. Caesar pursued them so closely in 
their march, and gave them such overthrows, that of this great 
multitude, only one hundred and ten thousand survived ; and 
they avoided entire destruction, only by agreeing to return to 
their own territory. 

Caesar directed his next effort against numerous bands of Ger- 
mans, who, under their king Ariovistus, had lately invaded that part 
of the country lying between the Rhine and the Saone. He went 
in search of them, and, after messages and negotiations had been 
tried to no purpose, he attacked their position, and defeated them 
with great slaughter. Ariovistus fled with his surviving followers 
as far as the Rhine, which he passed in a small canoe. Num- 
■ bers of his people perished in attempting to follow him, and the 
greater part of those who remained behind, were overtaken and 
put to the sword by Caesar's cavalry. Although Caesar himself 
does not mention any particular number of the slain,* the loss of 
the Germans in this short campaign alone is said by others to 
have amounted to no less than eighty thousand.f 

Having thus ended his first expedition, he left the army in 
winter quarters, and repaired to Cisalpine Gaul, which was a part 
of his province, in order to watch the course of affairs and politi- 
cal transactions at Rome. Great numbers of persons came from the 
capital to pay him their respects, and he sent them all away satis- 
fied, some with presents, and others at least with hopes. He did 

* Comment, de Iiello Gall. b. i, c. 52—54. 
f See Plutarch, in the life of Julius Ccesar. 



384 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VI. 

the same during the following years, and carried on a variety of 
state intrigues, on the one hand conquering his enemies by the 
arms of the Roman citizens, and, on the other, gaining the Ro- 
man citizens to his cause by the money of his enemies. 

As soon as he had intelligence that the Belgae, who were then 
the most powerful people of G-aul, and whose territories occupied 
a third part of the whole country, had taken up arms in vast num- 
bers to check the progress of the Romans, he marched to that 
quarter with incredible expedition.* He found them ravaging 
the lands of those Gauls who were allies to Rome. Having care- 
fully watched their motions for a time, he so vigorously attacked 
the main body of their troops at the passage of a river, and made 
such a slaughter of them, that the stream was filled with the 
dead, and bridges were formed of their bodies. The pursuit was 
equally disastrous and bloody ; the survivors scattered in every 
direction, and such of the insurgents as dwelt along the sea-coast, 
were subdued with little or no resistance. 

There still remained unconquered the Nervii, who were con- 
sidered the fiercest among all the Belgic nations. After they had 
secured, as well as they could, their families and most valuable 
goods in a forest at a great distance from the enemy, they marched 
through their woods to the number of sixty thousand, and fell 
upon Caesar as he was fortifying his camp, and when he had not 
the least idea of an attack. They first routed his cavalry, and 
then surrounding the seventh and twelfth legions, killed or 
wounded nearly all the officers. Had not Caesar snatched a buck- 
ler from a private legionary, put himself at the head of his broken 
forces, and received timely aid from the other legions, in all pro- 
bability the Romans in this place would have suffered an entire 
defeat. Even though encouraged by this bold act of their leader 
and fighting with a spirit above their strength, they were not able 
to rout the Nervii. These brave men maintained their ground, 
and were cut to pieces on the spot. Of six hundred Nervian chiefs, 
only three senators were saved, and of an army of sixty thousand 
men, only five hundred escaped the fury of the conquerors. 

The Attuatici. descendants of the Cimbri and Teutones, and in- 
habitants of a district below the confluence of the Sambre and the 
Meuse, were on their march to join the Nervii, when they heard 
of this unfortunate action ; the news induced them to return to 
their own country. Being pursued by Caesar, they shut them- 

* The force of the Belgse consisted or was intended to consist of more 
than three hundred thousand warriors. The army of Caesar at this 
time may have amounted to about sixty thousand men, Romans and 
auxiliaries. 



B. c. 58—50. CONQUEST OF GAUL. 385 

selves up in their principal fortress. On his approach they offered 
to surrender; and when commanded to lay down their arms, they 
threw such a quantity of weapons from the battlements, as almost 
to fill up the ditch to the height of the ramparts. Caesar how- 
ever delayed, for their own sake, to take possession of the place 
till the following day. But the besieged abused this act of hu- 
manity and kindness of their conqueror ; and, either wishing to 
deceive him or repenting of their submission, they again took up 
arms during the night, and in a sally endeavored to surprise the 
Roman army. Four thousand of the assailants were killed in this 
desperate attempt, and the remainder, being forced back into the 
town, were, in consequence of their breach of faith, sold as slaves, 
to the number of fifty-three thousand persons. 

This was the conclusion of the second expedition of Caesar in 
Gaul, which rendered him master of the whole eastern frontier as 
far as the Rhine and the Meuse. Many other districts had like- 
wise given signs or made offers of submission to the Romans. 
The next campaign (b. c. 56), although less conspicuous for great 
battles, was equally remarkable for a rapid succession of exploits 
and conquests. All the country from the Seine to the extremities 
of Armoricum, and from the northern coast to the neighborhood 
of the Pyrenees, was placed and kept under subjection either by 
Caesar in person, or by his lieutenants, the principal of whom 
were Labienus, and Crassus, the son of the triumvir. 

Gaul, exhausted or terrified by so many losses, remained quiet 
for a time. Still there was not wanting to Caesar and his legions 
occasions for new combats. The Usipetes and the Tenchteri, two 
great German nations, driven from their territory by the superior 
force of the Suevi, had crossed the Rhine at the northern extre- 
mity of Gaul, to make conquests. Their number amounted to 
four hundred and thirty thousand, including women and children. 
Caesar inarched against them with his usual celerity, and met them 
whilst they were yet stationed on his frontier : he attacked their 
camp by surprise; easily overcame the few that took up arms to 
oppose him, and instead of the humanity which he had showed 
to the Attuatici two j^ears before, he put that multitude of unfor- 
tunate people to the sword, without distinction of sex or age. 

All the roads from the camp to the river were strewed with 
the bodies of the slain ; those who attempted to escape by swim- 
ming, perished in the waves, and a part only of. the cavalry suc- 
ceeded in recrossing the Rhine and reaching the German shore. 
In all probability, no fewer than four hundred thousand Germans 
lost their lives on that day. 

Accustomed as the Romans were at that time not to spare their 

33 



386 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VI. 

enemies, persons of more humane disposition could not but be 
shocked at the recital of this dreadful slaughter. Hence, when 
it was proposed in the senate to vote a public thanksgiving for the 
late victory, Cato moved that Caesar should be delivered up to 
the injured nations, that he might expiate by his own sufferings 
so many acts of injustice, and that thus the divine vengeance 
might fall on their author rather than on Rome. Caesar, in his 
turn, sent to the senate letters full of invectives against Cato ; 
he laid the blame on the Germans, and with more or less since- 
rity and truth, charged them with a breach of faith. Having suc- 
ceeded in inducing the senate to decree nothing against him, he 
fearlessly pursued the course of his wars and victories. 

This indefatigable man had resolved to carry the terror of his 
arms beyond the Rhine, and to attack the nations of Germany on 
their own ground. His pretence for this attempt was to chastise 
the tribes of the Sicambri for giving shelter to the fugitives who 
had escaped from the last massacre ; but his true motive, says 
Plutarch, was the ambition to be the first Roman that ever crossed 
the Rhine in a hostile manner. In pursuance of his design, he 
threw a bridge over that river, though the stream in that place 
was remarkably wide and rapid. By almost incredible exertions, 
this immense bridge was finished in ten days, and his army passed 
over it without opposition, while the Sicambri, terrified at his 
approach, fled, and concealed themselves in their forests. Caesar 
laid waste their country, burnt their habitations and villages, 
and enlisted the feelings of the better disposed Germans in behalf 
of Rome ; he then returned into Gaul, after having spent only 
eighteen days in Germany. 

But his expedition into Britain discovered the most daring 
spirit of enterprise ; for he was the first who entered that part of 
the ocean with a fleet, and carried war into an island whose very 
existence was doubted. Indeed, some writers had represented it 
so incredibly large, that others disputed its reality, and consider- 
ed both the name and the thing as fabulous. Yet Caesar under- 
took to conquer this island, and to extend the Roman empire be- 
yond the limits of the hitherto known world. He sailed thither 
twice from the opposite coast in Gaul, and fought many battles, 
the result of which was more injurious to the Britons than ad- 
vantageous to the Romans. Nor did he terminate the war as he 
desired : he merely received some hostages ; and, having fixed a 
certain tribute to be paid by the natives, he returned to Gaul, 
where his presence was much needed. 

His first care was to provide winter-quarters for his troops. 
As there was, in consequence of excessive drought, almost a fani- 



B. c. 58—50. CONQUEST OF GAUL. 387 

ine in the country, he was obliged, in order to obtain provisions 
for his legions, to separate them and to place their quarters at a 
distance from each other ; a step which would otherwise have 
been highly imprudent. But, whether a necessary or an impo- 
litic measure, the circumstance was noticed by the Gauls, who 
being still averse to the Roman yoke, and rather oppressed than 
subdued, did not fail to turn it against their conquerors. Their 
armies soon reappeared in the field, and began to insult the Ro- 
mans in the stations which they occupied. The strongest and 
most numerous body of the insurgents was that of Ambiorix, a 
valiant chieftain in northern Gaul, who attacked Sabinus and Cotta, 
two of Caesar's lieutenants, and cut them off with their whole 
party. After this, he went with sixty thousand men and besieged 
the legion under the command of Q. Cicero, the brother of 
the great orator; and although these brave Romans, encouraged 
by the example and exhortations of their commander, made a re- 
sistance even above their strength, they were on the point of be- 
ing forced in their encampment. 

The barbarians, having failed in their first attacks upon it, 
undertook to carry it by a regular siege. The experience they 
had acquired in their previous wars against Cassar, and the direc- 
tion of some prisoners, taught them to approach slowly the Ro- 
man station. They first made a line of circumvallation consisting 
of a ditch fifteen feet wide and a breastwork eleven feet high. 
To this work they added various machines, turrets, targets, etc. 
and, availing themselves of a high wind, threw burning darts and 
other missiles into the thatch with which the huts of the camp 
were covered. The fire, aided by so many circumstances, rapidly 
spread itself in every direction. The barbarians ran with loud 
cries to the attack of the palisade, as to an assured victory; but 
such was the energy of the Roman soldiers, that, although cov- 
ered by the darts of the enemy, surrounded by the flames, and 
aware of the destruction that was actually taking place of their 
baggage by fire, they did not so much as look behind them, but 
fought with the utmost valor. Their gallant conduct obtained 
what it deserved ; the assailants were repulsed at all points with 
considerable loss. 

Among the numberless exploits performed on that day, one 
deserved particular notice. Two centurions or officers, 1'ulsio 
and Varenus, had for a long time disputed about their superior 
courage. In the present engagement, and during the hottest 
part of the battle, Pulsio cried out to Varenus: "This is the 
proper occasion to decide our quarrel ; let us try which of the 
two will show the greater intrepidity." Having said this, he 



388 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VI. 

threw himself among the enemy, and was instantly followed by 
Varenus. Pulsio at first killed one of the assailants, but soon 
found himself surrounded by a multitude of others. Varenus 
ran to his assistance, and rescued him from his peril; but the 
moment after, Varenus himself, having also killed an enemy, fell 
into exactly the same daDger. Pulsio, in his turn, came and de- 
livered him from this perilous situation. Both of them being 
thus still unhurt, attacked the Gauls again with redoubled vigor, 
and having made a dreadful havoc of them, re-entered the camp, 
covered with glory. It thus happened that their exploits were 
perfectly equal; each was indebted to the other for the preserva- 
tion of his life ; and their dispute still remained undecided.* 

Yet these extraordinary feats of the Romans did not rescue 
them from their distress; nay, the danger increased every day, 
as most of them were wounded and unable to fight, whilst all 
their letters to Caesar were intercepted by the enemy. The in- 
telligence at last reached the head-quarters of the Roman army : 
Caesar set out without losing a moment, and having speedily col- 
lected a body of soldiers which did not exceed seven thousand, 
hastened to the relief of Cicero. The Gauls, aware of his move- 
ments, left the siege and went to meet him ; for they despised 
the smallness of his force, and were confident of victory. The 
armies arrived at nearly the same time on. the opposite sides of a 
brook. Caesar, in order to increase the enemy's presumption, 
affected to secure and fortify his camp, and so contracted its lim- 
its, as to make the number of his men appear mush smaller than 
it was in reality. 

At this sight, the Gauls, trusting to their multitude (sixty 
against seven thousand men), thought that they had nothing to 
fear but the escape of their enemy ; they accordingly passed the 
rivulet with a view to force the Roman lines. As soon as they 
arrived near the camp and began their attack, Caesar, by a sudden 
sally of all his troops, threw them into the utmost confusion, killed 
a large number of them, and routed the remainder (b. c. 54). By 
this victory he not only relieved Quintus Cicero, whom he joined 
the same evening, but likewise checked the spirit of insurrection 
in those parts ; and for greater security remained the whole win- 
ter in Gaul, visiting all the quarters, and keeping a watchful eye 
over the motions of the inhabitants. Moreover, in the room of 
the troops whom he had recently lost under Sabinus and Cotta, 
he received a reinforcement of three entire legions. 

* Sic fortuna in contentione et certamine utrunique versavit, ut alter 
alteri inhnicus auxilio salutiquc esset, neque dijudicari posset liter utri 
virtute anteferendus videretur. — De Bello Gall. b. v, c. 44. 



b. c. 58—50. CONQUEST OF GAUL. 389 

But, notwithstanding all the precautions, efforts and victories 
of Caesar, there still lurked in the minds of the vanquished Gauls 
an intense desire to recover their freedom. Hitherto, the seeds 
of hostility had been privately scattered in the more distant parts 
of the country by the chieftains of the bravest nations; they now 
prepared to combine their efforts in order to make one grand and 
general attack. No later than the ensuing winter, their ill-sup- 
pressed animosity everywhere suddenly burst into an open flame, 
and all the posts of the Romans were threatened with destruction. 
This formidable league was headed by Vercingetorix, a young 
prince of the nation of the Arverni, whose energy and heroic 
courage soon gathered under his banner a very numerous army. 

Never was Caesar involved in greater difficulty than on the 
present occasion ; never, too, did he display to greater advantage 
his military and inventive genius, his wonderful activity and 
boldness. He had separated his troops for their winter-quarters, 
and had repaired as usual to the southern limits of his province, 
to watch the course of political events at Rome, when the 
news of the Gaulish insurrection suddenly reached him in north- 
ern Italy. He quickly retraced his steps into Transalpine Gaul, 
and with a body of cavalry, went over ice and snow, and across 
a thousand other obstacles, to rejoin his legions in the north. 
Having succeeded in reuniting them into one bod} r , he led them 
against the principal cities and strongholds of the enemy : he 
took most of these, and, either as a retaliation for the past or a 
warning for the future, treated them with great severity. 

Vercingetorix, on his part, was not idle. Although careful to 
avoid a general engagement, he constantly followed the Romans 
at a proper distance, watched their motions, and annoyed them in 
their march. If he could not prevent them from invading his 
own territory and besieging his chief city,* he at least obliged 
them to retire without having been "able to take that place, and 
even after a defeat of a portion of their army. It is true, Ver- 
cingetorix was in his turn defeated by Caesar in a battle of the 
cavalry ; but this victory was not obtained by the latter without 
a sharp conflict, considerable personal danger, and the lo3S of his 
sword which fell into the hands of the Arverni, and which they 
suspended as a trophy in one of their temples. 

Notwithstanding these difficulties and partial losses, Caesar 
always kept that preponderance in the field of battle, which was 
the natural effect of his unparalleled skill and the superior disci- 

* This was Gergovia, a place well fortified and situated on a hill, at 
the distance of about five miles south of Clermont, the present capital of 
Auvcrgnc. Both the name of that fortress and its ruins arc still extant. 

33* 



390 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VI. 

pline of his troops. Vereingetorix, having lost in the late 
engagement a very considerable part of his cavalry, withdrew, 
and sought a stronger position. The Romans followed him, till 
they again met him on the heights where the Seine and a num- 
ber of other streams have their source. Here the Gaulish leader 
with his numerous infantry of eighty thousand men, took his 
station at Alesia, a place advantageously situated on a hill and 
between two rivers; but no advantage of numbers or situation 
could be a match for the daring and inventive genius of his 
enemy. With an army less numerous by ten thousand men than 
that of the Gauls, Caesar undertook to shut them up in that posi- 
tion, which otherwise seemed inaccessible. He effected his design 
by a double line of trenches, redoubts, and a thousand other for- 
tifications; the one directed against the Gaulish army thus 
enclosed, and the other against every attack from without. These 
two lines extended over a circumference of twelve or fourteen 
miles; and, what is still more astonishing, so stupendous works 
appear to have been constructed by the Romans in the space of 
a few weeks. 

Against these vast preparations the whole strength of Gaul 
was exerted in vain, and finally exhausted. An army of two 
hundred and forty-eight thousand men had been assembled from 
the different parts of that country, and approached Alesia for the 
relief of the besieged. They marched with great confidence to 
attack the Roman intrenchments. Having failed a first and 
second time, they renewed their attempt on another day, and, 
according to Caesar himself, f carried it on with the most deter- 
mined bravery, whilst Vercingetorix and his followers made a 
vigorous sally from the town. All was to no purpose. The 
Romans, protected by their fortifications, their superior discipline, 
and the genius of their leader, stood firm in every post and re- 
pelled every assault, destroying great numbers of the assailants. 
The Gaulish troops from without were at last dispirited by their 
repeated failures and losses : they fled in different directions ; 
while those within the town, destitute of all hope, at length 
agreed to surrender. Among the captives, twenty thousand 
JEdui and Arverni were reserved by Caesar to serve for a time 
as hostages, in order to secure the subsequent fidelity of their 
respective nations. The others underwent the ordinary fate of 
prisoners, and in this capacity were divided as plunder among the 
troops. As to their valiant leader, Vercingetorix, whose mag- 
nanimity had shone forth to the end, it is very probable that, 

f De Betto Gall, h. vii, c. 83—87, 



B . o. 63. PARTHIAN EXPEDITION. 391 

like other captive chiefs on such occasions, he was destined to 
grace the future triumph of his conqueror (b. C. 52). 

Thus was the death-blow given to the national independence 
of Gaul. Many partial attempts at resistance were afterwards 
made by various tribes j but these were quickly suppressed by 
the rapidity of Caesar's movements. In order to strike terror 
throughout the country, he did not hesitate to commit acts, 
which he may have deemed necessary, but which often savored 
of cruelty against the victims of his ambition. Very soon, how- 
ever, he adopted measures dictated by his natural clemency, and 
sought to complete by mildness the reduction of a people whom 
no force of arms could subdue. This new line of conduct, sup- 
ported by his extraordinary fame and talents, proved eminently 
successful. All Gaul at length acknowledged the superiority of 
Rome (b. C. 50); aversion was changed into affection, and among 
all ancient nations, Gaul was one of the most proficient in the 
arts, sciences, and civilization of the Romans. 

DISASTROUS EXPEDITION OF CRASSUS AGAINST THE 
PARTHIANS.— b. c. 53. 

Simultaneously with the late victorious campaigns in Gaul, 
another expedition took place in the east, quite different in its 
character and result. A new treaty concluded at Lucca between 
the triumvirs (b. c. 56) had produced the following agreement : 
Ccesar was to continue for five years more in the military de- 
partment of Gaul; the province of Spain together with Africa was 
assigned to Pompey, and that of Syria to Crassus. This partition 
of the provinces, approved by the people notwithstanding the 
opposition of Cato and others, had enabled Caesar to pursue the 
course of his conquests. Pompey was allowed to stay in Rome, 
and to govern his province through his lieutenants, Afranius, 
Petreius and Varro. In fine, Crassus, overjoyed at his promotion 
to the government of Syria, prepared every thing for his depart- 
ure into the east. 

It was the desire of Crassus to enjoy an equal degree of glory 
and influence with the other triumvirs, and he expected to obtain 
in Asia the same military andpolitical advantages that were likely 
to be acquired by his rivals in Europe. His chief object, an ob- 
ject by no means included in his commission, was to wage war 
on the Parthians, the only great power, besides Rome, then 
extant in the known world. Nor did he consider Syria and Par- 
thia the limits of his good fortune. lie also intended to penetrate 
into the Bactrian and Indian regions as far as the eastern ocean, 



392 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VI. 

and to make the expeditions of Pompey and Lucullus in Asia 
appear the mere sports of children, when compared with his own. 
He was indeed so much taken up with this extravagant idea, that 
when, at the beginning of his campaign, and after some trifling 
success, Parthian ambassadors came to complain of his breach of 
the existing peace, Crassus said that he would give them his an- 
swer at Seleucia, a city on the banks of the Tigris. Upon which, 
Vagises, the oldest of these ambassadors, laughed, and holding 
up the palm of his hand, replied : " Crassus, hair will grow here, 
before you arrive at Seleucia." 

To these schemes of unjustifiable ambition, Crassus added rob- 
bery and sacrilege. In his passage through Judea, he invaded 
and carried oft' all the treasures contained in the temple of God at 
Jerusalem. This was the first act of his expedition, as also the 
beginning of his misfortunes : he who had hitherto appeared an 
able and experienced commander, seemed afterwards entirely aban- 
doned to a spirit of rashness and blindness which led him from 
error to error, till he met the disastrous death which his injustice 
and rapacity deserved. 

In the year B. c. 53, Crassus, with an army- of more than forty 
thousand men, crossed the Euphrates at Zeugma to go in quest 
of the Parthians. He was advised to follow the course of that 
river, till he reached the neighborhood of Seleucia, whilst a fleet 
laden with provisions was to secure the support of his trooj)s in 
a hostile country ; and as the river itself would prevent him from 
being surrounded, he would always have it in his power to fight 
upon equal terms. But an Arabian chieftain in whom he placed 
great confidence, prevailed upon him to direct his march towards 
the east, in order to come up the sooner with the enemy. 

This resolution, suggested by a traitor, was the most rash, and 
proved the most disastrous, that could have been taken. The 
Romans, by following this new direction, advanced at first through 
a smooth and easy country, but, after a few more marches, found 
themselves in sancty and barren plains, without shade, herbage, and 
water. At no great distance from Carrse in Mesopotamia, they 
were met by innumerable swarms of Parthian cavalry, which at- 
tacked them on all sides. Even the first charges made dreadful 
execution among the legionaries. It would have been a great 
advantage for them to engage in a pitched battle and come to close 
conflict; but this was rendered impossible by the tactics of their 
foe. The principal way of fighting used by the Parthians con- 
sisted in wheeling about with great swiftness, and discharging an 
incessant shower of arrows, which they hurled with the greatest 
dexterity and violence, piercing every thing within their reach. In 



b. c. 53. PARTHIAN EXPEDITION. 893 

this trying situation, the Romans knew not how to act. If they 
continued steady in their ranks, they received mortal wounds, and 
if they advanced against the enemy, they were equally exposed to 
meet with the same fate ; for the Parthians fled before them, 
tfnd not only could rally with extreme facility, but even kept 
up a continual discharge of their murderous missiles whilst they 
retired. 

Against opponents of this description valor and discipline were 
of no avail. Young Crassus, the same who had signalized himself 
in Gaul under Csesar, endeavored in vain, with a choice portion 
of the army, to make an impression on the barbarians by a vigo- 
rous charge j both he and his followers perished in the attempt. 
The enemy's attack was then directed with fresh energy against the 
main body of the Roman troops. While the light cavalry harassed 
them on their flank, and galled them with their arrows, the heavy- 
armed Parthians charged them in front with their pikes, which 
they hurled with such force that they often pierced two men at 
once.* The loss, consequently, was dreadful on the side of Crassus, 
and his defeat irretrievable. Plunged in the bitterest affliction, 
he began to recede with the rest of his troops, but again suffered 
himself to be deluded by a traitor, and to be entangled by him 
in difficult and marshy places that retarded his march, and caused 
the unhappy fugitives to be again overtaken by the enemy. 

To complete their misfortune, Surena, the Parthian general, 
added stratagem to superiority of force : wishing to take Crassus 
alive, he proposed, with great apparent moderation, a private in- 
terview between himself and the Roman general. Crassus, com- 
pelled by his own soldiers to accept of the proposal, had no sooner 
come to the place of meeting, than, in consequence of an affray 
that ensued, both he and his chief attendants were put to the 
sword. His head was severed from his body and carried as a tro- 
phy to Orodes, the Parthian king. Some authors relate that this 
prince caused melted gold to be poured into the mouth, to insult 
by this significant action the insatiable avarice of Crassus. f The 
sad remnant of his army escaped by different routes to Syria, 
where their arrival there in a pitiful condition, by exhibiting the 
extent of their disaster, showed at the same time the just punish- 

* Plutarch, in the life of M. Crassus. 
f Or, in the energetic and somewhat bombastic style of Floras, "to 
torture by this metal, after death, the body of him whose soul had, dur- 
ing life, been consumed by a most violent thirst for gold. — Aurum enim 
Uguidum in rictum oris infusum est; ut, cujus animus arserat auri cupiditate, 
ejus etiam mortuum et cxangue corpus auro ureretur." — Floras, Epitome % 
b. iii, c. 2. 



394 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VI. 

inent of an expedition undertaken for no better motive than per- 
sonal ambition and cupidity.* 

This overthrow cost the Romans no less than thirty thousand 
men, viz. twenty thousand slain and ten thousand prisoners. It 
must have been the more painful to their national feelings, as it was 
quite unexpected. On previous occasions, they had sometimes 
experienced signal defeats; but this happened before their state 
had attained that astonishing degree of power and glory which it 
now enjoyed. At this time, Rome was everywhere triumphant, 
respected and dreaded by all nations : she had subdued the 
mightiest states of Europe, Asia, and Africa; and but lately had 
crushed the powerful kings of Armenia and Pontus, as well as 
the warlike tribes of Gaul and Germany. Yet, in the zenith of 
her greatness, she saw her glory suddenly dimmed and blasted in 
an attack upon a people recently formed out of the assemblage 
of those eastern nations, whose valor she was accustomed to de- 
spise. 

The check received by Crassus from the Parthians was a blot 
on the Roman name, which the victories gained shortly after by 
Cassius and Ventidius over the same enemy could not remove. 
The standards and prisoners taken in the battle of Came still re- 
mained in the hands of the conquerors; and not till thirty years 
later, under the reign of Caesar Augustus, did the Parthian 
king consent to restore them to the Romans. This last transac- 
tion alone was at the time considered a glorious triumph; so 
much were the subjects of the empire humbled, even at that time, 
by the recollection of their defeat, and so seriously did they be- 
lieve it incumbent on them to eiface, if possible, the smallest 
vestige of so signal an overthrow. 

Julius Cassar, in order to avenge the affront which the Parthi- 
ans had lately inflicted on Rome, was on the point of marching 
against them, when he was put to death by his enemies in the 
senate. Mark Antony formed the same design ; but it turned to 
his disgrace. During several centuries, the Romans ever regar- 
ded new attacks upon the Parthians as the most important of 
their wars. Their ablest and most warlike emperors, Trajan, 
Marcus Aurelius, Septimius Severus, etc. made them the chief 
object of their attention, and the surname of Partlikus was, 
among all honorable titles, the most flattering to their vanity. 
If sometimes the Romans crossed the Euphrates, and pursued 
their conquests beyond that river, the Parthians, in their turn, 

* Compare the disaster of Crassus with the similar and well merited 
reverse of Julian the apostate in his war against the Persians, who had 
succeeded the Parthians in their empire. (Modern History, pp. 112, 113.) 



b. c. 50—48. CESAR.— POMPEY. 395 

did the same from the opposite direction, and carried their arms 
and ravages into the Roman provinces. If they met with de- 
feats, they also gained victories. In a word, the Romans could 
never succeed in bringing them under their sway ; and the Par- 
thian nation was like a wall of brass, which, with impregnable 
force, resisted the most violent attacks of their power. 



RIVAL PRETENSIONS OF POMPEY AND JULIUS CESAR.— CIVIL 
WAR,— BATTLE OF PHARSALIA, AND DEATH OF POMPEY.— 

b. c. 50—48. 

The death of Crassus was, in another respect, dreadfully fatal 
to the Roman republic. With much less ability and merit than 
either Caesar or Pompey, he had maintained a sort of equilibrium 
between these famous men, his colleagues in the triumvirate. 
"When this intermediate power was destroyed by his death, there 
was no longer any restraint on their rival pretensions. Each 
aimed at possessing the highest rank and acting the first part in 
the state. On one hand, Pompey, having long exercised the chief 
influence and a sort of princely authority among the citizens, was 
unwilling to part with these prerogatives; on the other, Caesar 
had expressly declared and shown that he would never be satis- 
fied with the second place. The latter could not bear a superior; 
the former would endure no equal.* 

The general corruption of the times, licentiousness, violence, 
extortion, bribery, the sale of public offices and contempt of the 
laws, had reached the highest pitch among the Romans. Pom- 
pey, by his authority and influence, might have put some check 
to these disorders; but he connived at them for a time and pur- 
posely suffered them to increase, in order that their very excess 
might compel the Romans to place their whole confidence in his 
abilities and appoint him dictator. If he failed as to the precise 
object of his wishes, he at least obtained what was equivalent to 
it, the extraordinary distinction of being named sole consul, with 
permission, but no obligation, to have a colleague. This unpre- 
cedented favor perfectly satisfied the ambition of Pompey, by 
placing him alone at the head of the government, while it was 
more gratifying still to his vanity to acquire dignities by the free 
choice of the citizens than by recourse to arms, and to possess 
admirers rather than subjects. 

* Nee quemquam jam ferre potest Caesarve priorem, 
Pompeiusve parem. — Lucan. i, 125 — 26. 



396 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part'VI. 

The power of Caesar had a still stronger support in the affec- 
tion of a brave, numerous and triumphant army. The legions, 
which he had so often led to victory, were accustomed to follow 
him through every difficulty with the utmost confidence ; and the 
same soldiers who, under any other general, would have been in- 
significant troops, fought and served under him with invincible 
courage and constancy. He had thus strongly attached them to 
his person and fortunes, first, by the example of his heroism, 
which made him, notwithstanding the delicacy of his constitution, 
share in their greatest dangers and hardships; secondly, by the 
extreme care with which he always provided for their subsistence 
and safety; and finally by the splendid rewards and largesses 
that he bestowed on them, not only as a recompense for past ser- 
vices, but likewise as an earnest of future favors. It was well 
known that he did not accumulate riches for his own luxury and 
convenience, but for the purpose of rendering them a common 
treasure, and the reward of distinguished bravery. By these 
means, both officers and soldiers were taught to rely on the suc- 
cess and protection of their general ; and this consideration, aided 
by a variety of other incidents, led these men, who ought to have 
been champions of the state, to support the individual pretensions 
of Caesar, and to devote themselves to the zealous defence of his 
person and interest. 

This artful politician was not less careful to advance his cause 
at Rome, than among the troops. Not being able, as long as 
the Gaulish war lasted, to act personally in that capital, he con- 
ducted every thing there through a number of zealous partisans. 
By letters, directions, intrigues, and money, he exercised a pow- 
erful influence over the assemblies of the people, and even frequently 
over the deliberations of the senate. Having in this manner obtained 
first the prorogation of his command in Gaul, he afterwards ob- 
tained the unexampled privilege of being a candidate for the con- 
sulship, even whilst absent and at the head of an army. 

It is true that Pompey and other friends of the government at 
last perceived the ulterior object of Caesar's ambition; and some, 
indeed, had mentioned it long before, but to no purpose. Now 
at length, they took measures to repeal the extraordinary con- 
cessions that had been made to him, or at least to render them 
nugatory ; unfortunately, the power of Cassar had been suffered 
to increase for too long a time, and had become so formidable as 
to set at defiance the tardy efforts of his opponents. This bold 
commander was already approaching with a select body of his 
troops. It is said that having reached the banks of the Rubicon, 
a small river which formed the limit of his province, he stopped 



B. c. 50—48. (LESAR.— POMPEY". 397 

a moment to weigh the greatness of his undertaking, and shud- 
dered at the idea of its consequences. Then plunging into the 
abyss of futurity, in the words of those who embark on arduous 
and doubtful projects, he cried out: "The die is cast/ 7 and im- 
mediately crossed the stream. By this daring act, Caesar openly 
declared war against the commonwealth, whilst he affected, under 
specious pretences, to ascribe the evils that were to follow from 
the present state of things, to his opponents at Rome. 

The whole country was thrown into the greatest consternation ; 
on all sides, people fled from their habitations, and communicated 
their alarm to the capital. Pompey, who had not expected so 
sudden an attack, and had relied too much on his own power for 
the raising of a sufficient force, was found unprepared for the 
conflict. Cato, however, had several times put him on his guard 
against Caesar, as, for instance, when he plainly said to him : 
" Now, indeed, the burden is preparing for your own shoulders; it 
will one day fall on the republic, but not till it has crushed you 
to the ground." The advice was then lost on Pompey, whose 
security on this subject went so far, that, when some persons ob- 
served in his presence how difficult it would be to oppose his rival, 
if the latter should advance in a hostile manner towards Rome, 
he answered that, "by merely stamping with his foot upon the 
ground, he would fill Italy with his legions." The event soon 
proved the contrary ; and when Pompey began to perceive his 
error, it was already too late. 

Caesar was advancing with fearful rapidity. He not only took 
possession of all the cities in his way, but gained daily accessions 
of strength from the garrisons and bodies of troops which were 
destined to oppose his march, but which chose on the contrary to 
declare in his favor. There was not a moment to lose; nearly 
all the senators and magistrates of the republic, with Pompey at 
their head, left Rome, and having by a precipitate flight reached 
the harbor of Brundusium a little before Caesar's arrival, had 
just time to sail thence on their way to Epirus, or the eastern 
side of the Adriatic sea (b. c. 49). 

It required Cassar only sixty days to oblige all his opponents 
to evacuate Italy. Being yet unable, for want of vessels, to 
pursue them to the opposite coast, he turned towards Rome, and 
entered it as a master. Pears had been entertained lest he 
should act in the same manner as Sylla and Marina had done on 
a similar occasion; but his clemency and mildness dispelled these 
alarms. The only violence which he used on this occasion was 
his seizure of the common treasury. He took from it immense 
sums of money to defray the expenses of the war, and thus turn- 

31 



398 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VI. 

ed the pecuniary resources of the republic against the republic 
itself. 

After a short stay in Rome, Caesar set out for Spain, to attack 
the numerous troops of his rival in that country. They consist- 
ed of five legions, five thousand horse, and eighty cohorts of 
provincial infantry, equal in number to eight legions or forty 
thousand soldiers : so as to make an aggregate of about seventy 
thousand men, under the command of Afranius and Petreius, two 
of Pompey's lieutenants. Varro, the third lieutenant, took little 
part in the contest. This prospect of affairs in the Pompeian 
party made Caesar say "that he was going to fight troops who 
had no general, and would return to fight a general who had no 
troops/'* Both he and his army had to undergo many dangers 
and fatigues in their Spanish campaign; so great however was 
the superiority of his genius over ordinary skill, such as was 
possessed by Afranius and Petreius, that he not only induced the 
natives to declare in his favor, but actually obliged the five Ro- 
man legions to lay down their arms, and surrender without the 
honor of a battle. 

This masterly and short expedition, which was soon followed 
by the reduction of Marseilles, submitted the whole west to the 
power of Caesar. Having no longer any apprehension on that 
side, he determined to carry the war into the east in pursuit of 
Pompey, who had by this time collected a formidable number of 
men and vessels. To attempt the conveying of troops across the 
Adriatic sea in presence of such a force, might have been an act 
of rashness in any one except Caesar; but this was for him an 
ordinary undertaking. Fearless of danger, he embarked twice to 
execute his design; and it was on one of these occasions that, 
whilst on board of a boat, and seeing the mariners nearly over- 
powered by the tempestuous weather, he bade them "not be 
afraid, as they were carrying Caesar and his fortunes." He effect- 
ed the passage of his legions with the success and celerity that 
characterized all his movements, and came in sight of Pompey 
near Dyrrachium. 

These two able commanders then began to employ against each 
other all the arts of warfare, marches, private encounters, fortifi- 
cations, etc. Still, they did not come to a general engagement. 
The most important action consisted in a vigorous and well di- 
rected sally made by Pompey against Caesar's lines, a portion of 
which was forced; and when the latter endeavored to retaliate, 
his troops met with a resistance which threw them into great con- 

* Ire se ad exercitum sine duce, et inde reversurum ad ducera sine 
exercitu. — Sueton. in Jul. Ccesar. 



B. c. 50—48. CiESAK.— rOMPEY. 399 

fusion, and occasioned the loss of many officers and soldiers. It 
is commonly thought that Pompey, on this occasion, might have 
obtained a complete and decisive victory, had he not, through ex- 
cessive caution and fear of an ambuscade, declined to follow up 
his success. . 

Caesar and his troops, although sadly disappointed in their 
hopes, did not on that account yield to despondency. The check 
which they had just suffered, merely induced them to alter their 
plan of operations, and to leave the neighborhood of Dyrrachium 
in search of a more favorable spot. They found such a one in 
the plains of Pharsalia in Thessaly. Pompey arrived soon after 
with all his forces, and stationed them on a height, at the dis- 
tance of thirty stadia, or about three miles, from Caesar's camp. 
And here also the two rivals applied themselves to watch closely 
each other's movements, and sought to take advantage of every 
propitious circumstance that might offer itself; till at length both 
came to the determination to decide their quarrel at once by a 
general battle (b. c. 48). 

Independently of auxiliaries on each side, the army of Pom- 
pey amounted to forty-five, and that of Caesar to twenty-two 
thousand legionaries. The latter, perceiving that Pompey's cav- 
alry was far superior in number to his own, placed six cohorts 
(or three thousand men) as a body of reserve behind his few 
squadrons, with orders to fall on the enemy's horse, when these 
would attempt, as he expected, to turn his flank. To these co- 
horts he expressly declared that he placed in them his chief 
hopes of victory. 

The signal was no sooner given than the veterans of Caesar ad- 
vanced, and charged the enemy in front. They were received 
with perfect order by their motionless opponents, and the action 
very soon became general along the whole line. The horse of 
Pompey, as was expected, put the cavalry of Caesar to flight at 
the first charge, and, together with a body of archers and sling- 
ers, were hastening to turn the flank of the enemy : just at this 
moment, the six cohorts, purposely drawn up to oppose them, ap- 
peared with pikes in their hands, and aimed their blows, accord- 
ing to their leader's order, at the face of their opponents. These 
splendid horsemen, astounded and dismayed at this sight, stopped 
on a sudden, fell into the utmost confusion, and fled to the 
neighboring heights. The archers and slingers, deserted by the 
horse, were easily put to the sword; nay, Pompey's left wing, 
being attacked in the rear by the six cohorts which had defeated 
his cavalry, began to give way. Caesar, in order to increase the 
impression he had already made ; brought forward fresh troops to 



400 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VI. 

the front of his own line, and while his reserve continued their 
exertions, made a general charge which the enemy no longer en- 
deavored to withstand. All fled in disorder through their own 
camp, and were pursued by the victors with great slaughter, espe- 
cially of their auxiliary troops. 

The victory of Cassar was complete. He lost only two hundred 
soldiers and thirty officers; and killed fifteen thousand of the 
enemy, made upwards of twenty-four thousand prisoners, and 
took a hundred and eighty colors with nine Roman eagles or 
legionary standards.* 

Pompey, as soon as he saw, at the beginning of the action, the 
dastardly flight of his cavalry, had returned to his tent in great 
dejection of spirit. Being soon told that the conquerors were 
already forcing his intrenchments, he changed his dress, mounted 
a horse, and passing through a gate of the camp, escaped to La- 
rissa; thence, by following the valley of Tempe, he reached the 
sea-shore, where he embarked with a few attendants and friends 
in quest of some hospitable land. Egypt seemed to 'offer them 
the most secure shelter, because the sovereigns of that country 
were under essential obligations to the Romans in general, and 
to Pompey in particular. But what justice and gratitude could 
be expected, in time of adversity, from base and interested souls ? 
As Pompey then appeared a vanquished fugitive, this was enough 
for the court of Egypt to resolve upon his utter ruin. Invited 
to land, he no sooner apnroached the shore, than a band of assas- 
sins murdered him in trie- sight of his wife Cornelia, who made 
the air resound with her lamentations. 

Thus perished a man who had been considered for thirty years 
the greatest of the Romans. The manner of his death showed 
to the world a striking instance of the instability of human things, 
and an exemplification of the sad reverses to which those are 
commonly exposed who, in times of political excitement, under- 
take to be the leaders of the state. Of the three famous men 
who composed the first triumvirate of Rome, we have already 
seen two, Crassus and Pompey, suffer a violent death. It will 
not be long before we see the third and most powerful of the 
three, Julius Caesar, experience in his turn a similar, and even a 
more terrible catastrophe. 

* Csesar, De bello civil., b. iii, c. 99. 



b. c. 48—44. CIVIL WAR CONTINUED. 401 



CIVIL WAR CONTINUED.— VICTORIES, DICTATORSHIP, AND 
DEATH OF JULIUS CESAR.— b. c. 48—44. 

Immediately after the battle of Pharsalia, Ca:sar set out in 
pursuit of Poinpey. It was not till he arrived at Alexandria, 
that he learned the death of this great man, formerly his friend 
and colleague, whose head was then presented to him by one of 
the chief murderers. He beheld with horror that awful sight, 
and shed tears on witnessing Pompey's misfortune. But he was 
soon obliged to protect his own life against the same faithless 
persons by whom that illustrious man had been put to death. 

As Roman consul, Ccesar thought proper to interpose his au- 
thority between Ptolemy, king of Egypt, and his sister, the 
famous Cleopatra, for the conciliation of their rival claims. The 
young king, highly displeased at this interference, the result of 
which tended to equal his sister with himself, immediately gave 
unequivocal proofs of his resentment : all the royal forces were 
directed to surround and attack Ccesar in the quarter in which he 
had intrenched himself, with only three or four thousand soldiers. 
Even in this critical situation, he baffled all the efforts of the 
assailants, till at length, having received several reinforcements, 
he assumed the offensive, and boldly attacking the Egyptians in 
their camp, put a vast number of them to the sword. The king 
endeavored to save himself by flight, but was drowned in the 
Nile, and his premature death was regarded as a punishment of 
that inflicted on Pompey. 

The indefatigable Caesar, after this new series of exploits, pass- 
ed over to Asia, and marched against Pharnaccs, the son and 
assassin of Mithridates. That wicked prince had taken advan- 
tage of the Roman civil war to recover the kingdom of his ances- 
tors, and had even made extensive conquests in the north of 
Lesser Asia. The sudden appearance of Caesar at the head of a 
few legions was enough to crush this recently acquired power. 
His progress was so rapid that, in a letter to one of his friends at 
Rome, he expressed it by these three words: Vent, vidi, vlci — 
"I came, I saw, I conquered."* (b. c. 47). 

With almost equal rapidity did he destroy the Pompeian party 
in Africa. The leaders of that party, Metcllus Scipio, Cato, and 
other distinguished men, by uniting their forces had collected 
there ten legions under their standards. They had, besides, a 

* Plutarch and Sueton., m Jul. Ccesar. 
34* 



402 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VI 

numerous fleet, an excellent cavalry, one hundred and twenty 
elephants, and large bodies of auxiliary troops furnished and com- 
manded by Juba, the king of Mauritania, their ally. This pow- 
erful combination of forces seemed to forebode the decline of 
Caesar's fortune : however it served only to give it more splendor, 
strength and solidity; in a campaign of less than six months, he 
defeated all his opponents, and subdued a vast extent of territory, 
of which he made a Roman province. The battle of Thapsus 
(b. c. 46) was not less decisive in his favor, than the battle of 
Pharsalia had been two years before. His troops vied with him 
in courage, and his victory was so complete, that Cato, Scipio and 
Juba, unwilling to survive the sudden failure of both their' hopes 
and resources, chose to put an end to their lives, rather than 
throw themselves on the conqueror's mercy. Cato died in the 
city of Utica, and for this reason is frequently surnamed by his- 
torians, Utican or Uticensis. 

Caesar had now prevailed over his enemies in every part of the 
world ; the west and the east, the north and the south, had been 
subdued by his arms, and pacified by his wisdom and clemency. 
After so many brilliant deeds of every description, he returned 
to Rome, where extraordinary honors awaited him from the sen- 
ate and the people. He was appointed Censor for three years, 
with full power to dispose of the honors and offices of the state, 
and Dictator for ten years, with the unexampled privilege of be- 
ing preceded by seventy-two lictors. During the course of one 
month he enjoyed four separate triumphs : the first, for his con- 
quests in Gaul; the second, for his victories in Egypt; the third, 
for the defeat of Pharnaces ; and the last for the overthrow of the 
king of Mauritania. As to his victories over Pompey and other 
Romans in the civil war, they were not considered fit objects for 
triumphs. 

Caesar, having thus obtained the grand object of his wishes, 
the possession of a real sovereignty in Rome, endeavored to re- 
concile the public mind to his government by acts of generosity 
towards his enemies, the grant of considerable rewards to his offi- 
cers and soldiers, public games, and the distribution of valuable 
gifts among one hundred and fifty thousand citizens of the lower 
and poorer classes. He even entertained all the people at a re- 
past, for which twenty-two thousand tables were prepared. The 
enormous expenses incurred on these occasions, were defrayed out 
of the vast amount of money which he had brought from his 
conquests, that is, the sum of about sixty millions of dollars. It 
is probable that these popular measures were not less successful 
in gaining the consent of the multitude to his absolute power, 



b. c. 48—44. CIVIL WAR CONTINUED. 403 

than his arms had been in subduing the leaders who opposed him 
in the field. 

Nevertheless it must be admitted, however illegal were the 
means of acquiring this power, that many of Caesar's acts were 
in themselves, as might have been expected from so able a per- 
sonage, worthy of a great sovereign. His authority was often 
exercised in enacting useful decrees, suppressing abuses, encour- 
aging agriculture, the sciences and the arts, and opposing new 
barriers to the perpetration of murder and other crimes. As the 
ancient Roman calendar was very deficient, and the cause of great 
confusion in the computation of time, Caesar reformed it with 
great though not complete success, on the principles established 
by the Egyptian astronomers. Nothing connected with govern- 
ment escaped the vigilance or was beyond the reach of his vast 
genius. Such, indeed, w r as the extent and vigor of his mind, that 
he could at the same time read or write, give audience, and dictate 
to a secretary; nay, w r hen his whole attention was bent on trans- 
acting by letters affairs of the highest importance, he might be 
seen dictating as many as four letters to four different secretaries 
at once. For these reasons Julius Caesar is commonly thought 
to have been, with respect to natural talents, the most surprising 
man that ever lived. 

Events, by their magnitude and rapid succession, kept pace, as 
it were, with the force and prodigious activity of his soul. Du- 
ring his short stay in Africa and in Home, the sons of Pompey, 
Cneius and Sextus, had mustered numerous troops in Spain. By 
placing themselves at the head of their father's adherents, gather- 
ing those who had survived preceding defeats, and making addi- 
tional levies, they rendered their party almost as formidable as 
ever. This new state of affairs required nothing less than the 
presence of Caesar himself; he therefore embarked for Spain, 
where he met with perils and difficulties worthy of his undaunted 
courage. His exploits, as usual, were great and important, even 
from the beginning of the campaign. The decisive action, and 
fortunately the last in this bloody struggle, took place near Mun- 
da, a city not far from the sea, in the southern part of the country. 

The first charges of the combatants presented an unusual 
spectacle : notwithstanding the well known valor of Caesar's troops, 
the Pompeians, by their equal bravery and superior numbers, 
threatened them with an entire defeat. Those legions, so fre- 
quently victorious before, but now meeting with the most deter- 
mined resistance from legionaries and veterans like themselves, 
began to give way, and seemed prevented only by shame from 
being completely routed : the danger, indeed, was so great, that 



404 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VI. 

Caesar thought of killing himself, and at one time appeared de- 
termined to do so. Dismounting from his horse, he seized the 
sword and shield of a private soldier, and advanced to the distance 
of only ten paces from the enemy. His example, his exhortations, 
his peril, revived the courage of his troops, and especially the 
tenth legion, a body of intrepid veterans, who had signalized 
themselves in all his wars. The fight was renewed with increased 
fury, though victory still remained in suspense ; till an untimely 
movement made by Labienus decided the fortune of the day. 
This general, formerly one of Caesar's lieutenants, but now one of 
the chief leaders in the Pompeian party, despatched five cohorts 
to the defence of his camp, which was threatened with an attack. 
As the cohorts were leaving the field of battle, Caesar, whether 
with sincerity or through artifice, cried out that the enemy were 
flying ; and this report, being soon spread through the two ar- 
mies, filled one with hope and the other with terror. The Pom- 
peians, who until then had valiantly kept their ground, began, in 
their turn to give way, broke their ranks, and fled in great 
disorder. 

From that moment, the slaughter, as usual, turned chiefly 
against the fugitives. There fell on their side thirty thousand 
men, among whom were three thousand Roman citizens of rank, 
with Labienus and Accius Varus, another distinguished general 
of this party. Besides the slain, seventeen ofiicers of rank were 
taken, together with thirteen Roman eagles or legionary stan- 
dards. Of the two sons of Pompey, the elder, Cneius, perished 
soon after in his flight, and the younger, Sextus, made his escape 
by concealing himself in the mountains of Celtiberia (b. c. 45). 
The loss of Caesar amounted to one thousand of his bravest war- 
riors, besides five hundred wounded. As he retired after the 
battle, he said to his friends that on other occasions he had fought 
for victory, but this was the first time he had been obliged to 
fight for his life. 

The victory of Munda gave peace to the world, yet did not 
afford any solid content to the victor himself. It might seem 
that, in this extraordinary exaltation and prosperity, Caesar had 
nothing more to desire, and that he must have been the happiest 
of mortals; the case proved exactly the reverse. By a very nat- 
ural effect of the emptiness of human things, the heart of this 
famous conqueror was an incessant prey to agitation or disgust, 
and even occasionally to aversion for life; it was a fathomless 
abyss which nothing could fill, a kind of furnace continually 
needing new fuel to feed its devouring activity. He had scarcely 
freed himself from the dangers and difficulties of the civil 'war, 



B. c. 48—44. CIVIL WAR CONTINUED. 405 

when be began to think of new expeditions and conquests. His 
present desire was to make war on the Parthians, and after sub- 
duing them, to cross Hyrcania, and marching along by the 
Caspian sea and Mount Caucasus into Scythia, to carry his con- 
quering arms through the countries contiguous to Germany, and 
through Germany itself; and finally to return by Gaul to Home; 
thus finishing the circle of the Roman empire, as well as extending 
its bounds to the ocean on every side. 

But, while Caesar was planning this vast scheme, he was not 
aware that his own existence, which appeared so secure after the 
defeat of all his enemies, was more seriously threatened than ever. 
He had, it is true, after the battle of Munda, returned in triumph 
to Rome and received there every sort of distinction : he was de- 
clared Inwcrator, perpetual dictator, the father of his country, 
etc; nay the temples were filled with his statues; and festivals, 
religious rites and sacrifices were impiously decreed to him as to 
a god. Still a precipice yawned beneath his feet. The extrava- 
gant honors paid to him, proceeded partly from servile adulation, 
partly from a design of his secret enemies to render him odious, 
and Caesar himself greatly contributed to create a dislike against 
him in the hearts of many, by the despotic and haughty manners 
he occasionally assumed. He desired above all to wear the in- 
signia and the name, as he already possessed all the power, of a 
king. This pretension, which he very imperfectly concealed, 
was the immediate cause of his ruin. A conspiracy was formed 
against him by the two famous praetors Cassius and Brutus, with 
sixty other citizens of distinction, most of whom were even sena- 
tors, and under essential obligations to Caesar either for the pre- 
servation of their lives, or the possession of their dignities. 

The conspirators appointed for the execution of their design 
the day on which Caesar expected to receive from the senate the 
royal diadem, and the title of king for all the countries subjected 
to Home, with the exception of Italy. As he entered the senate 
chamber, they rose, as if to do him honor, and conducted him to 
his seat. At this moment, Cimber, one of the chief conspirators, 
affected to present him with an earnest petition, and being refused, 
took hold of the dictator's robe, as if to urge the entreaty. Caesar 
exclaimed: "This is violence. " As he spoke these words, Cim- 
ber threw back the robe from his shoulders; this was the signal 
agreed upon, and called out to the other accomplices to strike. 
Servilius Casca aimed the first blow. Caesar started from his 
place, and, in the first moment of excitement, like a lion in the 
midst of hunters, endeavored to defend himself. But he soon 
perceived that resistance was vain Being already wounded, 



406 ANCIENT HISTORY. ' Part VL 

and seeing so many swords and daggers directed against him, he 
wrapped himself up in his gown, and fell, without further strug- 
gle, at the foot of Ponipey's statue. Some historians add that 
Caesar, perceiving among the conspirators Brutus, to whom he 
had long shown marked affection, mournfully exclaimed : "Thou, 
too, my son •" and from that moment resigned himself to his fate, 
and expired covered with wounds in the midst of his murderers 
(b. c. 44).* 

Such was the deplorable end of this famous personage, who, in 
order to gratify his ambition, had deluged almost every part of 
the earth with the blood, not only of foreign enemies, but likewise 
of Romans slain in war. It can hardly be denied that he had mer- 
ited a violent death, by subverting the government and trampling 
under foot the laws and liberties of his country. Yet, since the 
existing situation of affairs, the degeneracy of manners, and the 
natural course of events, manifestly demanded a change in the 
constitution and government of Rome, it was in some measure a 
happiness that the change should be effected by such a man as 
Caesar; the ruling power could not come into abler hands. 
Hence the act of his enemies not only savored too much of in- 
gratitude and perfidy, but was, at the same time, too illegal and 
impolitic, to deserve praise. Their conduct tended not to restore 
the freedom of the state, but on the contrary, to plunge both the 
city and the provinces into an abyss of new calamities, civil wars, 
and bloodshed, till the proud Roman republic ceased to exist.*)- 

Caesar himself had foreseen these evil consequences of his 
death. Among other remarks which he made about the dangers 
with which his life was threatened, he often observed that the 
prolongation of his days was much more important to the public 
than to himself. As for himself, he had long since acquired 
power and glory enough. But should he happen to fall by a 
premature and violent death, the state would lose its peace and 
tranquillity, and experience, more than ever, the evils of civil war. 

The sequel will prove the accuracy of these forebodings of 
Caesar. His murderers themselves became the victims of the new 
broils occasioned by their rash conduct, and it is remarkable that 
scarcely any one of them survived him by more than three years ; 
most of them, within that short and turbulent interval, met a dis- 
astrous fate. Some were slain in battle, others were put to death 

* Sueton. in J. Ccesarcm; — Plutarch, in the lives of Julius Coesar and 
Marcus Brutus. 

f See the train of poetical imagery and beautiful lines of Virgil, who 
was a contemporary to all these events, on the subject of Cresar's death 
and of the many evils by which it was followed. — Georg. i, 11. 466 — 497. 



B. c. 44—42. SECOND TRIUMVIRATE. 407 

by order of their enemies, and others killed themselves with the 
very daggers that had served for Caesar's assassination. 

Julius Caesar was killed in the fifty-sixth year of his life. As 
he did not commence the first of his grand military expeditions, 
the conquest of Gaul, before he was forty-two years of age, he 
therefore performed the exploits, which have rendered his name 
so conspicuous, in the brief space of fourteen years. 

He, moreover, entertained various projects for the utility and 
splendor of the Roman nation. Not to mention again his deter- 
mination to march against the Partisans, and avenge by their 
defeat the overthrow and death of Crassus ; he resolved to drain 
the great Pontine marshes which rendered the air quite unheal- 
thy, and much of the land unserviceable in the neighborhood in 
Rome ; to open a communication between the Ionian and iEgean 
seas, by cutting through the Isthmus of Corinth j to erect moles, 
and build convenient harbors along the coasts of Italy ; to open 
wide roads over the Apennines ; to dig a navigable canal from the 
Anio and Tiber to the sea at Terracina; to rebuild Corinth and 
Carthage ; to erect splendid edifices in Rome ; to establish public 
libraries; to revise the whole code of Roman laws, and reduce it 
to a better and more accessible form, etc. These were the 
momentous projects of Caesar; projects worthy of his unparalleled 
intelligence and courage, but which time did not allow him to 
accomplish. These designs, however, were not entirely lost, and 
some of them were put into execution under Caesar Augustus. 



ROME AFTER THE DEATH OF C7ESAR— SECOND TRIUMVI- 
RATE COMPOSED OF MARK ANTONY, OCTAVIUS CiESAR, AND 
LEPIDUS.— BATTLE OF PHILIPPI, AND RUIN OF THE REPUB- 
LICAN PARTY.— b. c. 44—42. 

Terror and dismay prevailed in Rome after the death of 
Caesar. His enemies, although applauded by many, did not re- 
ceive from the people those marks of universal approbation which 
they had expected. On the contrary, Mark Antony, Caesar's in- 
timate friend and colleague in the consulship, by makingknown his 
beneficent intentions and legacies to the people, easily incensed the 
multitude against his assassins; so that they deemed it expedient 
to shelter themselves for a time in the capitol, and, after a short 
stay, to leave the city altogether. Antony then applied more 
than ever to concentrate the principal authority in himself, and, 
notwithstanding the eloquent denunciations of Cicero against both 
his profligate morals and his arbitrary administration, he contin- 



408 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VI. 

ued to exercise it for a time in the most despotic manner. It was 
manifestly his intention to succeed the late dictator, and he would 
probably have carried his design into execution , had he not been 
prevented by a new competitor, who then appeared for the first 
time on the stage of public affairs, and, although much younger 
than Antony, far surpassed him in judgment, prudence and skill. 

This young rival was Caius Octavius (afterwards Cassar Augus- 
tus), the grand-nephew and adopted son of Julius Cassar. He 
had been residing for some time in the east, engaged in the pur- 
suit of his studies and in military exercises, when he received the 
news of his uncle's fate. This melancholy event surprised and 
greatly perplexed him, but did not damp his courage. Though 
he was scarcely nineteen years old, he already possessed the skill 
and depth of an able politician, together with the grasping views 
of an ambitious leader. Having hastily returned to Rome, he 
presented himself as the heir of J. Cassar, and in this capacity 
obtained considerable riches, which he spent in increasing the 
number of his partisans, and in acquiring popularity among the 
citizens at large. He at the same time affected great zeal for the 
republic, great respect for the senate, and great deference for 
Cicero in particular, pretending to be guided in all things by his 
advice. 

Under these auspices, and in concert with the two consuls 
Hirtius and Pansa, Octavius was active in checking the high 
pretensions and alarming power of Antony. The latter was not 
only defeated near Mutina (or Modene), but even compelled to 
evacuate Italy, and to retire with the remnant of his forces 
across the Alps into Gaul. Here he advantageously retrieved 
his losses by the addition of several legions to his party. On the 
other hand, Octavius, whose views were suspected by the most 
zealous republicans, saw his late services despised, and himself on 
the point of being stripped of the chief command in his own army. 
Having removed this danger by his prudence and resolution, he 
began to alter his line of conduct. He pretended to have his 
eyes opened by the conduct of his actual opponents at Rome, and 
therefore, as he had previously joined the senate against Antony, 
he now, with equal earnestness, joined Antony against the senate. 

This event entirely changed the aspect of affairs. There was 
no sufficient force in Italy to resist the joint armies of these two 
leaders; so that it became absolutely necessary to yield under 
this new usurpation. To strengthen their cause, they chose an 
associate in the person of Lepidus, a man of great wealth and of 
some influence in the state, but weak, of mean capacity, and 
consequently not likely to be feared in the disputes that might 



b. c. 44—42. SECOND TRIUMVIRATE. 409 

arise among thein about superiority. Such was the origin of the 
second triumvirate, which proved still more fatal than the former 
to the liberties of Rome and the lives of the Romans (b. c. 43.) 

The new triumvirs, after having assumed all the powers and 
distributed among themselves the chief provinces of the state, 
entered Rome at the head of their troops. After the example of 
Marius and Sylla, they drew up proscription lists against all the 
chief abettors of the opposite party. The lists, besides the 
opportunity which they afforded for acts of private revenge, 
marked out for death, some say, one hundred and thirty senators, 
others, three hundred senators and two thousand knights, including 
several relatives or former benefactors and friends of the triumvirs, 
who were not ashamed to sacrifice them to their private interests. 

Of these unhappy victims of their ingratitude and cruelty, the 
most distinguished, as well as the most universally regretted, was 
Cicero. This great orator had incurred the hatred of Antony, 
by constantly opposing his tyrannical views and profligate con- 
duct with all the power of eloquence. Sensible of the danger 
which now threatened him, he had withdrawn to one of his villas 
near the sea, full of perplexity and apprehension as to his future des- 
tiny ; his servants prevailed upon him to leave that spot, and to 
set out for a place of greater safety. In compliance with their 
earnest entreaties, Cicero began to hasten towards the sea shore, 
when a body of soldiers overtook him, before he had left the 
walks of his 'garden. He caused the litter to be stopped, and 
calmly presented his head to the soldiers. The countenance of a 
man so well known to every Roman, now worn out with fatigue 
and dejection, and disfigured by neglect of the usual attention to 
his person, touched even the persons who had come to assist in 
his murder : they covered their faces, while their centurion per- 
formed the office of an assassin. By three strokes the head of 
Cicero was severed from his body, and together with the hands 
carried to Rome, and exposed to public view from the very ros- 
trum on which this admirable man had so often appeared to 
defend innocence or vindicate the laws of his country. 

No act of the triumvirs drew greater odium on them, and es- 
pecially on M. Antony, than the murder of Cicero. It seemed 
as if eloquence, literature and philosophy had been put to death 
with so talented a personage; and it was remarked that Antony 
had not so much doomed Cicero to capital punishment, as Cicero 
had, by his very execution, ddomed Antony to eternal shame. 
Posterity, says Velleius Paterculus, will always detest the bar- 
barity of the one, while it will ever admire the virtues as well 
as the exquisite talents of the other. It will never cease to con- 

35 



410 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VI. 

sider Antony as a usurper, who made a dreadful use of his tran- 
sient prosperity and fortune ; and to acknowledge in Cicero a real 
friend of humanity, an excellent citizen worthy of the high pre- 
ferments to which his mer?t alone raised him, and an accomplished 
orator whose eloquence prevented the Romans from being sur- 
passed in genius by those whom their arms had subdued.* 

Simultaneous with the death of Cicero, the work of proscription 
was carried on with frightful violence, and even, in many respects, 
to a greater extent than its authors had originally projected : 
plunder, exactions, forfeitures and niuRler seemed then the order 
of the day ; scenes of death, or of the most frightful nature, every- 
where prevailed. An end was at last put to this course of tyranny, 
and the attention of the triumvirs was directed to a different and 
most important object. Brutus and Cassius had, by this time, 
collected immense forces in the east for the vindication of public 
liberty ; Octavius and Antony, for the opposite reason, and for 
the support of their assumed power, set out from Rome at the 
head of their legions, and crossing the Adriatic sea, advanced as 
rapidly as possible against the enemy. 

The two armies came in sight of each other near the city of 
Philippi, on the confines of Macedonia and Thrace. This was 
the spot destined to witness one of the most memorable battles 
ever fought, not only by the Romans, but by any nation, 
whether we consider the importance of the cause or the number 
of the combatants. The result was to be the preservation or the 
irretrievable downfall of a republic which comprised nearly the 
whole civilized world; the troops on each side amounted to at 
least one hundred thousand, Romans or auxiliaries. Their camps 
were so disposed, that Brutus was opposite to Octavius, and 
Cassius to Antony. Brutus attacked Octavius with so much 
vigor, that, in a moment, the legions of the latter were broken, 
routed, and pursued with dreadful slaughter into their camp ; the 
camp itself was forced, and Octavius, then seriously indisposed, 
narrowly escaped being slain or taken a captive. But in another 
part of the field, Antony gained over Cassius the same signal 
advantage which Brutus had obtained over Octavius. Cassius 
thought that all was lost; and yielding to the impulse of despair 
caused himself to be killed by his freedman Pindarus, before he 
could receive any news of the success of his colleague. His death 
raised the hopes of the triumvirate, while it dejected the minds 
of the republican party. A few days after, Brutus, deeming it 

* M. Cicero, qui omnia increnienta sua sibi debuit, vir novitatis no- 
bilissimae, et ut vita clarus, ita ingenio maximus, qui effecit ne quorum 
anna viceramus, eorum ingenio vinceremur. — Velleius, b. ii, c. 24 and 37. 



B. c. 44—42. SECOND TRIUMVIRATE. 411 

necessary to hazard another battle, did, it is true, every thing 
that the bravest and most expert general could do in his situation ; 
yet he was entirely defeated, and in his distress followed the 
example of Cassius, by putting an end to his own life.* 

The death of Brutus and Cassius extinguished every proba- 
ble hope of the restoration of the commonwealth. The liberty 
of the Roman people may be justly said to have been buried 
with them in the plains of Philippi j the more so, as a vast num- 
ber of their chief abettors perished on the same occasion, and 
most of their troops were either cut in pieces, or surrendered to 
the victorious party (b. c. 42). 

The poet Horace, then in his twenty-second year, was present 
at the battle of Philippi in the capacity of tribune or commander 
of a legion on the side of Brutus. As he himself relates, his 
courage did not appear in any remarkable degree; on the con- 
trary, he threw away his buckler, and fled.f Although he ' pre- 
served his life and liberty, he lost all his fortune, which was con- 
fiscated to the profit of the conquerors; and we owe in a great 
measure to his distress on that occasion, those effusions of clas- 
sical poetry which will for ever elicit the admiration and form the 
delight of the Latin scholar.^ He had no reason to complain of 
his new avocation; and the patronage of Msecenas, Octavius' 



* One of the characteristic features of those ages and countries in 
■which licentiousness and infidelity prevail, is that people easily persuade 
themselves to seek in voluntary death a remedy to their present evils. 
This is, however, a practice condemned both by reason and religion. 
The wisest among the Gentiles themselves considered suicide both as a 
want of courage, and a crime against the will and sovereignty of God. 
"Pythagoras," says Cicero (Be Senect. n. 73), "forbids a man to quit 
his station, unless by the command of the Supreme Ruler, that is, of 
God." Socrates speaks to the same effect in Plato's Dialogue on the im- 
mortality of the soul. He declares that a philosopher, that is, a true 
friend of wisdom and virtue, never will kill himself : " This is not al- 
lowed," says he, " even to those for whom death might be better than 
life. For, the Almighty has placed us in this world as in a station, 
which we ought not to quit without his order." 

If then Cato, Brutus, Cassius, and many others, committed suicide, 
the reason is because, instead of listening to the voice of sound reason, 
they suffered themselves to be misled by the principles of a false reli- 
gion or false philosophy. The mind of Brutus, moreover, had been ex- 
cited by the supposed apparition of a frightful ghost, which is said to 
have showed itself twice in his tent, as a presage of his impending and 
disastrous fate. This, notwithstanding his apparent firmness and tran- 
quillity, may have contributed to his despair. — See Plutarch, in his life 
of Brutus; and Florus, Epit. iv, 7. 

fHor. b. ii, Od. 5. Jb. ii, Ep. 2. 



412 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VI. 

friend and minister, who became acquainted with his poetical 
talent, abundantly repaid him for whatever he had lost at 
Philippi. 



OCTAVIUS AND MARK ANTONY CONTINUED.— NEW CIVIL WAR. 
BATTLE OF ACTIUM, AND CHANGE OF THE ROMAN COM- 
MONWEALTH INTO AN EMPIRE.— b. c. 42—31. 

Octavius and Antony, after their victory at Philippi, made 
between themselves, and without any regard for the weak Lepi- 
dus, a new partition of the Roman provinces. Octavius kept 
possession of the west, and the east was allotted to Antony. The 
latter set out with six legions and a numerous body of horse, to 
visit the regions which had been placed under his immediate 
control. By the ease and affability of his manners he gained 
great popularity in Greece; but his sojourn in Asia and Egypt 
became extremely prejudicial to his glory, by the opportunity 
which he found in these countries to indulge in his inclination for 
a sensual and dissolute life. Suffering himself to be enslaved by 
a wretched passion for Cleopatra, the queen of Egypt, he seemed 
to have lost, in the company of this profligate woman, all sense 
of virtue and decorum, as well as all regard for his most valuable 
interests. 

Octavius, on the contrary, having returned to Rome, neglected 
no means to strengthen and secure his power. He skilfully turn- 
ed every fault of his opponents to his own profit; he crushed by 
vigorous measures those who attempted or feigned to attempt the 
revival of the republican party, such as L. Antonius in the Peru- 
sian war, and Tiberius Nero in the province of Campania; in fine, 
he attached the soldiers more and more to his cause by rewards 
and largesses, and even succeeded in obtaining the esteem and 
affection of the citizens at large, by many acts in which he dis- 
played a mild and useful exercise of his power, and the efficient 
regard he began to manifest for the public prosperity. 

In these various measures of war and administration, Octavius 
was admirably sustained by his two illustrious friends, Agrippa 
and Maecenas, the one a skilful general and admiral, the other a 
sagacious and wise statesman. The first, by his courage and mili- 
tary abilities, was able in every war to fight with success the 
battles of the young triumvir; the second, by his industry, his 
temper, his choice of friends, and his fitness to soften the public 
manners by diverting the minds of men from objects of distress 
to the pleasant occupations of literary genius, was well qualified 



b. c. 42—31. OCTAVIUS AND ANTONY. 413 

to smooth all the difficulties in the way of the civil admin- 
istration. Although it had not yet fully appeared in what de- 
gree Octavius was to commit his affairs to such able hands, his 
discernment in choosing them might be considered as the presage 
of a fortune not depending on accidents, but founded on a real 
superiority of judgment and skill. He himself, in the interim, 
deeply matured his plans, in order to prevent his chief colleague 
from gaining any ascendency, and in order to secure his own 
preponderance in the whole empire. 

Two new wars, which simultaneously broke out in the west and 
the east, greatly contributed to give additional strength to one of 
the two parties, and cast much discredit on the other. The first 
of these contests was carried on between Octavius and Sextus 
Pompey (a son of Pompey the great), who headed a sort of mid- 
dle-party between the triumvirate and the republic. Having 
escaped with his life from the battle of Munda, he gradually col- 
lected the sad remnant of the republican forces; and assembling 
a numerous fleet, made himself master of Sicily, Sardinia, and 
all the seas between Africa and Italy. This enabled him to re- 
duce the Italian cities, and Rome in particular, to very great dis- 
tress and famine, by precluding the usual importation of corn 
from foreign countries. 

Before an open rupture took place between Sextus and the trium- 
virs, negotiations had been resorted to, and a peace had been conclu- 
ded ; nay, the reconciliation appeared so sincere, that the leaders on 
both sides invited each other to a feast. Sextus gave the first 
entertainment on board his vessel. While the guests were enjoy- 
ing themselves, Men as, once a slave of the great Pompey, but 
now emancipated, and the first officer in the fleet of his son, 
whispered to him that he had now a favorable occasion to re- 
venge the death of his father and brother, and to recover the 
rank of his family, by dispatching or detaining captive the 
authors of their calamities. " Let me cut the cable/' said he, 
"and put out to sea; and you will be master not only of Sardi- 
nia and Sicily, but of the whole Roman empire." "This might 
have been done by Menas, without consulting me," replied Sex- 
tus; "but my word is sacred, and must not Joe broken." The 
guests accordingly were suffered to depart unharmed, without 
even being made sensible of their danger, and they gave enter- 
tainments in their turn; nay, additional articles were adopted at 
these feasts to confirm the treaty which they had just concluded. 

This treaty however did not last more than one year (b. c. 39—- 
38): mutual complaints about the non-observance of some of its 
terms led, during the absence of Antony, to open war between 



414 ANCIENT HISTORY. Pakt VI. 

Octavius and Sextus. The hostilities were carried on principally 
at sea, with great vigor and animosity on both sides. Several 
battles were fought, and severe losses inflicted on the Octavian 
party; still nothing decisive was done during the whole space of 
two years. At last, the superior skill of Agrippa, lately ap- 
pointed admiral of the fleet of Octavius, completely decided the 
struggle in his favor: in a great naval battle fought near the 
shores of Sicily, he, with the trifling loss of only three ships, 
destroyed or captured nearly the whole hostile fleet, consisting 
like his own of three hundred vessels, no more than seventeen of 
which escaped to Messina (b. c. 36). Sextus, deprived by that 
single blow of his principal and almost only support, set out for 
Asia, where he shortly after perished in an ill-concerted attempt 
to revive his fortunes. 

The late victory of Octavius was followed by another transac- 
tion equally favorable to his interest. As Lepidus gave him, at 
that very time, some real or apparent subjects of complaint, he 
profited by the circumstance to strip this imprudent colleague of 
the little share of power hitherto allotted to him in the trium- 
virate : by his dexterity and the influence of his name, he induced 
all the troops of Lepidus to abandon their general, and to pass to 
his own side. As to Lepidus himself, he did not insult him in 
his misfortune, but being satisfied with depriving him of his 
command, he left him until death in possession of some honorary 
titles. 

But Octavius himself, notwithstanding his success, was at first 
involved in great difficulty. By the surrender of the land troops 
of Sextus Pompey, and the further addition of the legions of 
Lepidus to his own, he was found to be the master of all the 
troops that had been employed in the late war, whether as friends 
or as enemies. His fleet consisted then of nearly six hundred 
galleys with store-ships and transports; his land-army comprised 
forty-five legions, which, though supposed to be incomplete, may 
have amounted to upwards of two hundred thousand men. To 
these he joined from fifteen to twenty-five thousand horse, and 
about thirty thousand light infantry. All these forces had been 
levied for different masters and in different provinces of the 
empire; they were persons of different characters; some origin- 
ally slaves, others freemen; natives of Spain, Gaul, Sardinia, 
Sicily, and Africa, mingled with Italians and Romans; adherents 
of Julius Caesar or of Pompey, of Antony, Octavius, or Lepidus. 
It was certainly difficult to dispose of an assemblage consisting 
of parts so various and discordant. Those who had come over 
from Sextus Pompey and Lepidus were to be retained by indul- 



B. c. 42- -31. OCTAVIUS AND ANTONY. 415 

gence and favors ; and those who had been the original support of 
Caesar's fortunes, had strong claims on his kindness. All were 
sensible of their consequence, and felt persuaded that the fate of 
the empire was in their hands.* 

Octavius saw the necessity of assigning different quarters lo 
the various parts of this numerous army, before any cabals could 
be formed, and a mutinous sjDirit have time to work on their mind. 
But it was, at the same time, exceedingly dangerous to attempt 
the separation of troops thus disposed, before granting to them 
all the rewards and gratuities which they expected. Octavius saw 
the peril that menaced him. He was far from having at his dis- 
posal the means to satisfy the pretensions of the whole army; yet 
he did not shrink from the arduous task,%id on this occasion, as 
on others of a similar nature not unfrequent in times of civil 
wars, he succeeded by his prudence in extricating himself from 
the difficulty. The more ancient legions were separately ap- 
peased by the grant of a portion of their request, and prevailed 
upon to accept their discharge from the service. Military honors 
and gifts were bestowed on other officers and soldiers who had 
signalized themselves by their bravery ; and the rest were satisfied 
with the distribution of some money, accompanied by the promise 
of much more splendid rewards in future. Finally, care was 
taken not to leave them idle, but they were led or sent to a 
variety of expeditions against the Pannonians, Dalmatians, and 
other Illyrian tribes whose restlessness annoyed the frontiers. In 
these wars, Octavius gave many and undoubted proofs of personal 
courage, and, cither in person or through his lieutenants, obtained 
complete success. 

The power of this celebrated man began, at that period, to be 
solidly established. His conduct at first had rendered him an 
object of mistrust and terror; but owing to his subsequent mod- 
eration, benevolence, and exertions for the public good, those 
sentiments of dislike and hatred were gradually superseded by 
affection and esteem. Hitherto he had been constantly surrounded 
by competitors or assailed by enemies; but the whole west was 
now under his undisputed control, and public admiration was 
entirely on his side. It would indeed have been unjust not to 
admire so much success in so short a term of years; so many 
victories won over the barbarians; four civil wars prosperously 
ended, at Mutina, Philippi, Perusia, and in Sicily; the whole 
force of Lepidus and Sextus Pompey subdued, and added by the 

* This description of the army under Octavius is taken almost literally 
from Ferguson (b. v, c. 7) and Crcvier (vol. xv, p. 428]; both of whom 
have followed in their narrative ^ppian and Dio Cassius. 



416 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VI. 

conqueror to bis own; in a word, so muck done by one not yet 
thirty years of age : all tbis was certainly calculated to produce 
in tbe minds of tbe people a sort of veneration, which, constantly 
upheld and even increased by a series of glorious actions, became 
one of the strongest supports of bis greatness. 

Tbe case of bis remaining colleague was exactly tbe reverse. 
A life of dissipation, extravagance and licentiousness tarnished 
the lustre of tbe otherwise great qualities of Antony, and ren- 
dered him more and more contemptible in the eyes of the Roman 
people. Even in bis campaigns, and notwithstanding the splendor 
of his military talents, he fell very short of the prosperity that 
everywhere accompanied the arms of bis rival. Whilst Oc'tavius 
was waging war against Sextos Pompey. Antony undertook his 
grand Parthian expedition, in which the whole glory was for his 
lieutenant Yentidius, and the disgrace for himself. 

Tbe career of Yentidius was checkered with a variety of in- 
cidents. During bis youth, be had been taken prisoner in the 
Social war, and led to Rome to serve for tbe conqueror's triumph. 
Being then reduced to very great distress, he at first served as a 
private soldier, and signalized himself by his courage. Julius 
Caesar, that excellent judge of personal merit, promoted him to 
higher functions, and successively raised him to the dignity of 
senator, tribune of the people, and praetor. He was still in 
possession of this last office, when, after the premature death of 
the two consuls Hirtius and Pansa, be was appointed by the 
triumvirs to fill one of the two vacant places in tbe consulship, 
till the end of the year b. c. 43. 

In all the contests which arose towards this time about the 
sovereign power in Rome, Yentidius attached himself to Mark 
Antony, and served him with courage and fidelity. Being sent 
by him to arrest tbe progress of the Parthians in Asia, he signally 
defeated them in three battles, thus gaining in a short time more 
victories over them than had ever been gained by any Roman 
general. Triumphal honors were decreed to Yentidius for these 
victories, and the people saw with admiration one who formerly 
bad entered Rome as a captive, now enter it as the conqueror of 
the only nation in tbe world that set their power at defiance. 

This general might have pursued his advantage over the Par- 
thians to a much greater extent, and even have made them 
tremble for their empire. But he feared to provoke the jealousy 
of Antony by doing more in this respect; he was even fearful 
that be had already gone too far, and his apprehensions were by 
no means groundless. The triumvir, awakened as it were from 
his lethargy by the victories of his lieutenant, hastened to the 



b. c. 42—31. OCTAVIUS AND ANTONY. 417 

scene of action, and assumed the whole command of the troops, 
endeavoring in this manner to reap the fruits of an expedition so 
gloriously begun by another. His jealousy or vanity turned only 
to his shame and disappointment. 

The force which he mustered for the continuation of the war, 
consisted of sixty thousand Roman foot, and ten thousand borse 
who, though chiefly Gauls and Spaniards, were reckoned as Romans; 
the number of the allies, including cavalry and light-armed 
soldiers, amounted to thirty thousand. This formidable host 
struck terror even into distant nations, and alarmed all Asia, 
but it was rendered perfectly useless by the precipitation of 
Antony. He ought certainly to have wintered in Armenia, that 
he might give repose and refreshment to his men, after a march 
of a thousand miles : instead of this precaution, he hurried for- 
ward, and in his haste left behind him the military engines, 
amongst which was a battering ram eighty feet long. These 
engines followed the army on three hundred carriages: but they 
were not allowed to reach their destination; the Parthians, by a 
skilful and bold attack, destroyed them all in the way, and put to 
the sword the numerous detachment that accompanied them, that is, 
about ten thousand soldiers with their commander Statianus. 

This loss greatly discouraged the Romans. The king of Ar- 
menia, their most powerful ally, withdrew from the camp in 
despair; and, on the other hand, while they were employed in 
the siege of Phraata, a considerable city, the Parthians came 
upon them with great insolence and contempt, Antony, being 
well aware that inaction would lead to an increase of despondency 
among his troops, led out ten legions and the whole cavalry, 
underpretence of foraging. His real object was to fight; but he 
firmly believed that this ostensible pretext would be the only 
method of drawing the enemy after^iim, and bringing them to a 
battle. After some progress through the country, he observed 
them moving at no great distance, and watching an opportunity 
to attack him in his march. At this moment, he feigned an in- 
tention to retire; accordingly, he passed the army of the barba- 
rians which was drawn up in the form of a crescent, but he had 
previously directed the horse to charge the enemy briskly, as 
soon as the ranks of the latter would be within reach of the 
legionary troops. The Parthians were struck with astonishment 
at the order of the Roman army, whilst they observed them 
passing at regular intervals without confusion, and brandishing 
their pikes in silence. 

When the signal for battle was given, the Roman horse rushed 
to the attack; the Parthians, thougli somewhat surprised, received 



418 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VI. 

it with firmness. As soon, however, as the infantry also came to 
the charge, their shouts and the clashing of their arms so fright- 
ened the enemy's horses, that they were no longer manageable, 
and the barbarians fled without coming to a battle. Antony 
closely pursued them, in hopes that this action would in a great 
measure terminate the war. But, when his cavalry had followed 
them a great distance, he found that he had not slain above 
eighty of the enemy, and thirty only were taken prisoners. Hence, 
his victory was both incomplete and unavailing ; the vanquished, 
having easily rallied, began to harass the conquerors by desultory 
attacks, and the Romans experienced a great deal of trouble in 
reaching their camp. To add to their vexation, their companions 
had been defeated during their absence by the garrison of Phraata, 
and their works round this place had been demolished. 

So many difficulties and losses convinced Antony of the ne- 
cessity of retreating. It was a painful though indispensable 
measure. From the place of their encampment till they re- 
passed the frontiers of the enemy, the Roman troops had to fight 
their way across valleys and mountains, and against incessant 
attacks of the Parthian cavahy. The march, it is true, was 
conducted with a skill and valor worthy of the generals and 
armies of ancient Rome : during an interval of twenty-seven 
days, the time of this retrograde march from Phraata, the Par- 
thians were defeated in eighteen engagements. But these victo- 
ries of the Romans had no other effect than to protect their 
retreat, and, in other respects, the expedition of Antony was a 
complete failure. On reviewing his army after they had reached 
a safe place, he found that their loss amounted to twenty-four 
thousand men; and he lost eight thousand more, in his march 
during winter from Armenia to the Roman province of Syria. 

To this ill-success of his arms, Antony after his return added 
new excesses in dissipation and extravagance, into which his 
passion for Cleopatra betrayed him, and the report of which 
rendered him extremely odious and unpopular at Rome. In 
order to gratify that ambitious and vicious woman, he was not 
ashamed to dismember in her behalf the Roman provinces of the 
east, and to divorce his own virtuous wife Octavia, the sister of 
his colleague. Octavius did not fail to turn so many unpardon- 
able faults to his advantage. He obtained a decree from the 
senate, depriving Antony of all consular and triumviral authority, 
and pronouncing Cleopatra an enemy of Rome. Antony, on his 
part, proffered a variety of charges and recriminations against 
Octavius, and, from this moment, the two rivals determined to 
decide their quarrel by force of arms. 



b. c. 42—31. OCTAVIUS AND ANTONY. 419 

Their preparations for the impending conflict were adequate to 
the importance of the cause.* Octavius assembled an army of 
eighty thousand foot and twelve thousand horse, with a fleet of 
two hundred and fifty vessels well equipped and well manned. 
The forces of Antony were still more numerous; his land army 
consisted of a hundred thousand infantry and twelve thousand 
cavalry, besides a large number of auxiliaries; and his fleet 
amounted to five hundred galleys, many of which had been fur- 
nished and were commanded by Cleopatra in person. The whole 
Roman power, with its various allies, took a share in this mo- 
mentous contest; it was the east fighting against the west for the 
possession of the world. 

These two powerful armaments met at the entrance of the 
Ambracian gulf, near the promontory of Actium. Contrary to 
his interest, to the advice of his ablest officers, and probably to 
his own better judgment, Antony, through condescension to the 
queen of Egypt, chose to commit his fortunes to the hazard of a 
sea-fight, rather than to the well known valor of his numerous 
legions. The engagement began at noon of the second of Sep- 
tember, while the two land-armies, from the opposite shores of 
the gulf, were spectators of the combat. After the battle had 
lasted for a few moments, a skilful movement of Agrippa began 
to occasion some confusion in the centre of the enemy's line. 
The event, however, was still undecided, when the ship of Cleopatra 
was seen to withdraw from the action, and steer with full sail in 
the direction of Egypt. She was followed by sixty other vessels, 
nay, by Antony himself, who, blinded by his passion, was more 
concerned about the presence of the queen, than the preservation 
of his fortune, his honor, and his troops. This shameful flight 
completely decided the day in favor of Octavius. After some 
further resistance on the part of Antony's force, the whole fleet, 
and a few days after, the land-army consisting of nineteen brave 
legions, seeing themselves deserted by their general, surrendered 
to the conqueror (b. C. 31). 

This important victory left Octavius without a competitor in 
the empire; all the allies and Roman provinces of the opposite 
party hastened to make their submission, and acknowledge his 
laws. Antony and Cleopatra were, it is true, still alive, but their 
final overthrow was easily achieved in the ensuing year. By the 
connivance of Cleopatra herself, Octavius met with scarcely any 
opposition in his attack upon Egypt : Antony, after a vain show 
of resistance, killed himself at his approach ; the queen hesita- 

*See Plutarch, in the life of Antony. 



420 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VI. 

ted to do the same, as long as she entertained hopes of an honor- 
able treatment from the victor, but as she soon perceived that 
he intended to lead her away captive, she also put an end to her 
life, having, it is said, procured a basket of figs to be brought to 
her, in which lay a venomous serpent whose bite caused her 
death. "With Antony ended the civil war; with Cleopatra fell 
the second Egyptian kingdom after a duration of nearly three 
hundred years, and Egypt was thenceforth reckoned a Roman 
province. 

The battle of Actium was the conclusion of the grand drama 
which changed the Roman republic into a monarchy : by the de- 
feat of Antony and the previous abdication of Lepidus, Octavius 
remained sole and absolute master of this great empire. Although 
he did not assume the title, he possessed all the authority of a 
sovereign, and so secured it during a long life, as to transmit it 
without opposition to the princes of his family. 

Octavius proceeded with consummate prudence in this ambitious 
and successful career. After having crushed his competitors by 
force of arms, he applied himself to reconcile the public mind to 
the present order of things by beneficence and moderation. He 
skilfully procured the unanimous consent of the senate to ac- 
knowledge him as the head of the government; and, while he 
concentrated the ruling power in his person, was careful to retain, 
in the exercise of it, the outward forms of the commonwealth. 
By these various means, he gradually accustomed the Romans to 
their new political constitution, and became, under the name of 
Augustus, the real founder of that famous monarchy which thence- 
forth was properly called the Roman Empire. 

We have related in succession all the principal events which 
led to this momentous change, and at the same time made known 
its natural causes. Enough, it is hoped, has been said to render 
them familiar to the reader. But it becomes Christians to raise 
their minds to a higher order of reflections, and to behold in the 
series of human revolutions, the ruling hand of God's providence, 
directing them" all, not less mightily than sweetly, to the accom- 
plishment of his own adorable designs. The Messias, or Saviour 
of the world, who had been promised, foretold, and expected 
during four thousand years, was now going to appear on earth, 
and to establish his religion among men by the destruction of 
idolatry. It was proper that He who is called in Scripture the 
Prince, the Lord, the King of Peace,* should be born in a 
time of profound and universal peace. Moreover, the Roman 

*Isa. ix, 6; 2 Thess. iii, 16; Hebr. vii, 2. 



B. c. 42—31. OCTAVIUS AND ANTONY. 421 

empire, by its vast extent and the intimate connexion of its 
various parts throughout the world, was intended to open an 
easier access to the preaching of the Gospel, and represent in a 
vivid manner the unity and universal diffusion of the Church of 
Christ. 

All these circumstances occurred under Augustus, and Augustus 
himself was the instrument prepared by Almighty God to put an end 
to all civil dissensions, and establish tranquillity among the nations 
of the earth. This then was the epoch marked out in the eternal 
decrees for the temporal birth of Christ, the beginning of his 
Gospel, and the establishment of his religion. "In the days of 
those kingdoms/' had said a prophet, " the God of heaven will 
set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed; and his kingdom 
shall not be delivered up to another people : and it shall break 
in pieces, and shall consume all these kingdoms : and itself shall 
stand for ever."* Such is, therefore, the grand object of God's 
designs in the government of this world : the establishment of 
the kingdom of his Incarnate Son ; a kingdom to whose forma- 
tion, as to their ultimate end, the kingdoms of the earth are 
referred; a kingdom infinitely preferable to all temporal goods; 
a kingdom of justice and peace, of charity and truth, connecting 
heaven with the earth and time with eternity; in a word, an 
indestructible and eternal kingdom, to the possession of which 
every man should incessantly aspire. 

* Daniel ii, 44. 



35 



PAKT VII. 



LAWS AND POLITY, ARTS, MANNERS, AND CUSTOMS OF ANCIENT 
NATIONS.* 



■ The reader would be but imperfectly acquainted with ancient 
history, if he confined himself to the recital of battles, conquests, 
and political events; he should also know the laws and manners 
of those early ages, and the origin or degree of perfection of the 
arts which were then known and practised. For this reason, 
in the course of the present work, care was taken to introduce 
remarks on these interesting objects, as they presented them- 
selves in the history of each of the most flourishing empires 
and states. Still, many details, however worthy of notice, 
were unavoidably omitted. This deficiency we shall now supply, 
by placing before the reader a general view of the laws and 
polity, the agriculture, commerce and navigation, the military 
art, and the manners and customs of the most celebrated nations 
of antiquity, whose history has been the object of this volume. 

LAWS AND POLITY. 

Very little can be said about the particular organization of the 
earliest societies with regard to polity and law. One thing only 
is certain, that they must have been, at least most of them, 
very deficient in their jurisprudence, and in great want of the 
necessary means of maintaining public order and tranquillity. 
Men had, it is true, the principles of natural law to guide their 
steps and regulate their actions; but the application of these 
principles to the various occurrences of life, if left to the direction 
of private individuals, was too precarious and uncertain, and at 
variance with too many passions and opposite interests, to offer a 
sure guarantee for the preservation of social order; on the other 
hand, the generality of mankind are not so inclined to practise 
virtue for virtue's sake, as to need no additional incentive to the 
fulfilment of their duty. Hence, it became necessary to join 

*See Goguet, DcVOrigine des Lois, des Arts, et des Sciences; Rollin, 
Histoire Ancienne, especially vols. x~xiii ; — Barthelemy, Voyage du jeune 
Anacharsis en Grece, vols, i — iii ; — Kermett's Antiquities of Rome ; — etc. 
422 



LAWS AND POLITY. 423 

positive laws to the natural precepts, and to enforce the observance 
of them all by various penalties to be inflicted by the governing 

P ° ITthoiwh we have little else than conjectures as to the special 
manner in which the laws of early states were decreed, it may be 
averted in general that their enactment, seldom the effect ot 
foresight, was usually called for by the physical and moral situa- 
tion of mankind in those times, commonly by the distress and 
sufferings of the people, often by the perpetration of crime and 
the necessity of preventing its recurrence. Thus the experience 
of evils already suffered obliged the Athenians to apply to Draco, . 
and afterwards to Solon, for a code of laws. In like manner a state 
of anarchy among the Medes caused Dejoces, a man of great 
prudence, wisdom and integrity, to become the legislator and first 
king of that nation. 

All men easily understood that the constitution of a city or 
state resembled that of the human body. The body is composed 
of the head and members; and among the members, some are 
more useful or necessary than others, yet all contribute to the 
good of each, and still more to the benefit of the whole system ■ 
We see also among the members of a state or the inhabitants 
of a city, an identity of wants and a reciprocity of services estab- 
lishing among them an admirable connexion. Sovereigns, gov, 
ernors, magistrates, and Other great or wealthy personages, like 
the rest of mankind, stand in need of dwellings, clothing and 
food The merchant, the mechanic, the workman, the farmer 
etc 'in their turn, stand in need of patronage, protection and 
security, in order to succeed in their respective professions, it 
all were rich, there would be no laborers; if all were laborers 
there would be no rulers of the people nor generals of armies. It 
is this mutual dependence of men on one another which has found- 
ed cities, and assembled together a multitude of persons endowed 
with different talents and following different employments J talents 
and employments alike requisite for the good of society, and all 
conducive to that end, provided every individual continues faith- 
ful to the duties of his station, and does not seek to encroach on 
the riohts and property of others. 

Hence, there is every reason to believe that the first positive 
laws had a reference to such objects as are requisite for the very 
exigence and preservation of society : for instance the cst«bh,h- 
n^nt of the rights of property, the punishment of robbers and 

*See Plato, De Legibus; and in Livy, b. ii, the ingenious *a*&T, 
proposed by Menenius Agrippa to the discontented plebeians of Kome. 



424 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VII. 

murderers, the conditions and formalities of marriage, etc. Next 
came the regulations concerning the partitions of lands, the mode 
of inheritance, the form of sales and other contracts ; in a word, 
the principal actions of civil life, and the interests of the different 
classes and members of society. Without doubt, those regula- 
tions varied according to the natural dispositions of the nations 
or tribes for whom they were issued, and the peculiar circum- 
stances in which men were placed. Generally speaking, the law 
granted considerable power to fathers over their children, to mas- 
ters over their slaves, and to creditors over their debtors, even 
when insolvency was the mere effect of misfortune; nay, this 
power was sometimes carried to a frightful excess, and savored of 
barbarity, as happened among the Spartans and Romans, though 
not among the Athenians, who, on the contrary, treated their 
slaves with great mildness. 

With regard to penal laws, they were both numerous and se- 
vere among ancient nations. The legislators of old did not think 
it an act of humanity and prudence to let heinous crimes pass 
unpunished, and to spare the guilty at the risk and cost of the 
moral and virtuous portion of society; foreseeing, on the contrary, 
that, notwithstanding all the advantages of civilization and educa- 
tion, there would never be wanting individuals ready to disturb 
the public peace, threaten the rights or even the life of their fel- 
low-men, they deemed it their bounden duty to secure the human 
family against these dangers. This they endeavored to effect by 
the enactment of various penalties to be inflicted on the guilty, 
even capital punishment when the importance of the case required 
it, in order that the wicked man might be terrified by the sad fate of 
others like himself, and be efficaciously prompted to check the 
violence of his passions. Such was the origin of penal laws, a 
painful though necessary remedy against the frailty of human 
nature. Still, as civil enactments could not then, any more than 
they can at present, reach every crime, and necessarily left many 
evil deeds to be punished by divine justice alone in a future life, 
they were directed only against those crimes which attacked reli- 
gion, public order, the security or welfare of the state, the essen- 
tial peace of families, and the lives, character and property of the 
citizens : such as impiety, sacrilege, perjury, treason and rebel- 
lion, calumny, theft, adultery, homicide, and the like. 

Still it was not enough to possess laws, unless there existed at 
the same time a competent and lasting power to watch over their 
integrity, to promote their observance, to interpret them authori- 
tatively, and to settle the differences that might arise among citi- 
zens. The administration of justice is one of the chief supports 



LAWS AND POLITY. 405 

of society. In the earliest times, fathers were the respective 
judges of the complaints and disputes of their children; but 
when many families had associated themselves to live together 
under one common rule, it became necessary to have also one 
common arbiter, possessed of sufficient impartiality to make a 
just application of the law among so many claimants, and in- 
vested with sufficient authority to enforce its execution. The 
different nations or tribes endeavored to secure this advantage to 
themselves, not only by the adoption of some political form of 
government,* but likewise by the appointment of tribunals hav- 
ing jurisdiction over every rank and every member of the state. 
The most celebrated of these ancient tribunals were, besides the 
Jewish Sanhedrim, the council of the thirty judges in Egypt, the 
Amphictyonic council in Greece, the Areopagus in Athens, the 
Ephori at Sparta, and the Censors at Rome. 

We may also reckon among the earliest legal institutions, the 
adoption of certain methods to record, authenticate, and transmit 
the principal transactions of civil life. The public good always 
required that affairs of great moment, such as mutual obligations, 
sales and purchases, titles to property, marriages, judgments, 
and the like, should possess a degree of publicity sufficient to 
establish the fact of their existence and insure their execution. 
Hence, formulas for various kinds of deeds were invented and in- 
troduced among civilized societies, magistrates appointed to en- 
force the observance of laws and contracts, and certain places 
assigned where evidences and documents relative to these ob- 
jects might be deposited and consulted. This, however, could 
not be done in the beginning of societies. As the art of writing 
was probably not yet known, deeds and contracts were made ver- 
bally; and, in order that proofs of these transactions might not 
be wanting, they were made in public and before witnesses, for 
instance, among the Hebrews, at the gates of cities. 

As long as the laws themselves could not, at least easily, be 
committed to writing, other methods were adopted to provide for 
their transmission to'future ages. The most usual, besides practi- 
cal observance and oral tradition, was to put them iu verse easy to be 
remembered. But when the art of writing began to be generally 
known, that is, upwards of fifteen hundred years before the com- 
ing of Christ,f it greatly facilitated the transmission of laws, as 

* See, on the formation of governments, Part I, p. 20. 

f Cadmus is commonlv believed to have carried the alphabet from 
Phenicia into Greece in the year b. c. 1510, a date sufficient of itself to 
justify our assertion; but it' must be further added that the alphabet 
may have been in use very long before Cadmus. The art of writing was 
certainly known, at least to some oriental nations, from the time ot tb« 

3C* 



426 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VII. 

well as of historical events, to the latest posterity. Thus were pre- 
served in writing the laws given to the Israelites in the desert, 
nay, the principal of them were engraved on tables of some hard 
materials; and this was also the case, among others, with the laws 
of Solon in Athens, and those of the Twelve Tables at Rome. 

Not to speak here of Moses, the inspired legislator of the He- 
brews, the most renowned among all the law-givers of antiquity 
were Menes or Mneves in Egypt; Minos in Crete; Lycurgus in 
Sparta; Numa Pompilius in Rome; Pythagoras, Charondas and 
Zaleucus in the Grecian colonies and cities of southern Italy, 
called for this reason Grcecia Magna; Solon in Athens; Confucius 
in China ; Zoroaster in Persia, and Zamolxis in Scythia. The 
laws which they enacted for their respective nations, enjoyed a 
longer or shorter existence, in proportion as they were more or 
less perfectly adapted to the circumstances of place, time and per- 
sons, the nature of the government, the character of the people, 
the good or bad example of influential persons, foreign intercourse, 
and a variety of other incidents. Of all the codes of ancient and 
profane jurisprudence, the most remarkable in point of duration 
were those of Egypt, Sparta, and Rome. 

None of them, however, can be seriously compared in any 
point of view with the Hebrew legislation. It was the peculiar 
privilege of the Hebrews, or Israelites, to receive their law from 

holy patriarch, Job, since he speaks of it in the book 'which bears his 
name (ch. xix, v. 23, 24) in a very clear and explicit manner. Now Job 
is commonly thought to have been almost a contemporary of Jacob, and 
very probably began to live in the eighteenth century before the coming 
of Christ ; this plainly supposes, for the use of the alphabet, a still ear- 
lier period than that of Cadmus. 

Moses, a contemporary of the latter personage, speaks of writing in 
many places of his books, and alludes to it as a practice already well 
known (see Exod. xvii, 14, and xxxiv, 27; — Deuteron. xxviii, 61, and 
xxix, 20, 27, etc.) Under Josue, the immediate successor of Moses in 
the guidance of the chosen people, there existed in Palestine a city 
called Dabir, whose former name had been Cariath-Sepher, that is, the , 
city of letters (Jos. xv, 15) ; whence there can be no doubt but that the 
knowledge and use of the alphabetical letters were very ancient among 
the Chanaanite nations. In fine, the art of writing was referred to so 
remote an antiquity among the Egyptians, that they claimed for Mer- 
curius or Hermes, one of their first legislators, the merit of the inven- 
tion, although it seems equally probable that this important and truly 
sublime discovei-y, the greatest effort perhaps of the human mind (if it 
ought not rather to be thought an immediate gift of God to our first pa- 
rents), was made by the Assyrians, or rather the Phenicians, as Lucan 
says in the third book of his Pharsalia : 

Phoenices primi, famaB si creditur, ausi 

Mansuram rudibus vocem signare figuris. 

Pharsal b. iii, 1. 220—21. 



AGRICULTURE. 427 

God himself through the ministry of Moses; hence that law, 
though a mere preparation for a still better one, far transcended 
the reach of human wisdom. The precepts of the Decalogue 
alone include, in a very narrow compass, a greater number of 
moral and necessary truths, than all the prescriptions of human 
philosophy and legislation can afford. 

To speak only of that part of the Mosaic dispensation which 
comprised the civil polity of the Hebrews, even this surpassed 
by far every other code of laws in the propriety and excellency of its 
enactments. Being intended to last until the coming of the 
promised Messias, that is, during the space of fifteen hundred 
years, it had the extraordinary privilege of never undergoing, all 
that time, any of those alterations which so easily occurred in 
the polity of contemporary states. The Mosaic law had established 
such an order and provided so well for future contingencies, that, 
when they occurred, there was no need of modifying it in any 
manner; a circumstance which alone might suffice to prove its 
divine origin. Had Moses been left to the natural resources of 
his genius, how great soever they were, he certainly would not 
have found out by his own unaided efforts a code at the same time 
so comprehensive and so perfect as to answer, from the beginning, 
every important emergency ; nor could he have so far anticipated 
whatever might happen during the course of many ages, as to 
render unnecessary any modification in its multiplied and various 
regulations. This no human legislator has ever done; nor could 
Moses himself have done it, had he written or acted singly as a 
man, and without having been inspired in the production of the 
Jewish law by God's eternal and unerring wisdom. 



AGRICULTURE. 

There is a much greater connexion between agriculture and 
laws, than might appear at first sight ; for most of the civil laws 
owed their origin to agriculture. The cultivation of the soil re- 
quires much care, exertion and labor. They who first applied to 
it, were obliged to seek assiduously after the means requisite for 
its success; these researches naturally gave rise to diiferent arts 
calculated to procure the necessary implements or to secure the 
fruits of husbandry; the arts, in their turn, produced commerce, 
and commerce incessantly multiplied the different interests of the 
different members of society. All these objects needed regula- 
tions; so that agriculture, by its various bearings and effects, 
occasioned the enactment of a great number of laws, whilst it 



428 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VI L 

was itself repeatedly encouraged by the laws and institutions of 
civilized countries. 

Agriculture is both the most ancient and the most useful of 
all social arts. It may justly claim as early an origin as the world 
itself, since it began to be practised in the 'earthly paradise, when 
man still possessed the treasure of his primitive innocence. Al- 
mighty God placed him in this delightful garden "to- dress it and 
keep it,"* not indeed with painful labor, but with easy care, 
which would furnish him at the same time an occupation, an 
amusement, and an occasion to admire in the productions of the 
earth the wisdom and boundless liberality of his Maker. 

But when the sin of Adam came to disturb this beautiful order, 
and, independently of the evils entailed- on the soul, drew upon 
him the sentence that condemned him "to eat bread in the sweat 
of his face/'")" then the Almighty turned his amusement into a 
chastisement, and subjected him to a succession of toils which 
would not have been his lot, if he' had remained a stranger to 
moral evil. The earth becoming, as it were, rebellious against 
him in punishment of his own revolt against God, produced 
thorns and thistles, so as to require strenuous efforts to restore 
its fertility, and to derive from it the tribute of its produce, of 
which man's ingratitude had rendered him unworthy. 

Nevertheless agriculture, painful as may be its pursuit, has 
become, through a singular effect of God's mercy, extremely ad- 
vantageous to men, and the chief as well as most assured support 
of the human family. Although mines of gold and silver should 
be exhausted; although diamonds and pearls should remain hidden 
under the earth and at the bottom of the sea; although the various 
arts which have no other object than comfort and embellishment 
should disappear, and commerce itself considerably decline, the 
fruitfulness of the earth improved by assiduous labor would alone 
be sufficient, at least generally speaking, to supply the necessary 
wants of the community. 

Hence agriculture was highly valued and carefully practised 
from the beginning. Having been in use before the deluge itself, 
it was resumed immediately after that event, and from Noe, 
whom Holy Writ describes as a husbandman, passed to his de- 
scendants. The dispersion occasioned by the confusion of lan- 
guages at Babel, and the numberless incidents of every kind to 
which this event must have given rise, obliterated the knowledge 
of that precious art from the minds of many families, or rendered 
it otherwise impracticable; yet, it was subsequently revived 
among them, and besides it was never lost in the societies that 

* Gen. ii, 15. j Gen. iii, 19. 



AGRICULTURE. 429 

continued to inhabit the plains of Sennaar or chose the neighbor- 
ing districts for the place of their residence. There is every 
reason to believe that the same important knowledge was preserved 
by a few of the colonies that removed to a greater distance ■ 
namely, by such as settled themselves from an early period in 
countries the soil of which was promising, easily cultivated, and 
naturally rich and fruitful. 

These assertions are all substantiated by facts. The best annals 
of antiquity give us to understand that, up to the first ages sub- 
sequent to the dispersion of men, the inhabitants' of Mesopotamia, 
Palestine, and Egypt, applied to agriculture. Among the Babylo- 
nians this art dated its origin at so remote a period, that it seemed 
coeval with their national existence ; nor will this be doubted, if, 
independently of the testimony of Berosus, we reflect ever so 
little on one incontestable fact of their history. Moses relates 
that Assur and Nemrod, the one a grandson and the other a great- 
grandson of Noe, built Ninive, Babylon, and several other cities;* 
now it would be very difficult to conceive how they could have 
succeeded in this enterprise without the help of agriculture, 
which is so necessary for supplying, during a long period, any 
considerable assemblage of people. 

In like manner, the knowledge and practice of agriculture 
among the Chanaanites and Phenicians dated from the primitive 
times ; the tradition of their writers on this point is confirmed 
by the authority of Scripture, in which we read that Isaac 
(about the year b. c. 1800) sowed in the land of Chanaan or 
Palestine, and reaped a hundred-fold.f The soil of Egypt also 
was very well cultivated almost from time immemorial. Abra- 
ham, during a certain year of great scarcity, travelled from the 
land of Chanaan as far as Egypt, in order to provide against 
famine ; and Jacob, in similar circumstances, sent his sons thither 
to buy wheat for the support of his family (b. c. 1917 and 1703). 

The art of agriculture was communicated by these early states 
to other climes and countries. Thus the Greeks, according to 
their own historians, received it from Egyptian settlers, and the 
Romans received it from Africa and Greece. The wisest nations 
constantly entertained for it an esteem, proportionate to its im- 
portance ; and the ablest legislators or sovereigns always considered 
its encouragement one of their most important obligations. 

In Persia, those governors in whose provinces agriculture flour- 
ished, received great praises and rew r ards; on the contrary, 
punishment awaited those who neglected to watch over this im- 
portant object. The second king of Rome, Numa Pompiliue, 
*Gen. x, 10-12. f Gen. xxvi, 1^. 



430 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VII. 

who so well understood and so exactly fulfilled the duties of 
a sovereign, first divided the Roman territory into several dis- 
tricts, and afterwards causing the farmers to come into his 
presence, praised those who had been successful, and reproached 
those who had been negligent in cultivating their lands. 

Ancus Martius, the second successor of Numa Pompilius, after 
his example, recommended nothing so much to the people, next 
to respect for religion, as the cultivation of lands and the raising 
of cattle. This relish for agriculture was long preserved among 
the Romans; and, in subsequent times, he who neglected his 
duty in that respect, drew upon himself the animadversions of 
the Censorian tribunal. 

It had been ascertained by long experience that the cultivation 
of lands, and the raising of cattle (which may be considered, if 
not a branch of agriculture, at least, an art connected with it), 
are, for every nation that applies to these objects, a certain and 
inexhaustible source of plenty and wealth. Never was agricul- 
ture more highly esteemed nor more carefully practised than in 
Egypt, where in fact it constituted a special object of the care of 
government; and no country perhaps was at first more populous 
or more prosperous. The land of promise, or Palestine, although 
a district of no considerable extent, supported also an incredible 
number of inhabitants, because it was cultivated with immense 
and assiduous care. What history relates of the wealth and pros- 
perity of many Sicilian towns, particularly Syracuse, of the mul- 
titude of its inhabitants, the number of its troops, the flourishing 
state of its navy, and the splendor of its edifices, might be taken 
for mere exaggeration, if it were not equally attested by all an- 
cient authors. To what was that city, with a territory of no great 
extent, indebted for its prosperity and its ability to bear so many 
expenses, except to the fertility of its soil — which fertility was 
carefully put to profit by the Syracusans ? 

What has been already said regards the productions of agricul- 
ture in general. As to wheat in particular, which is the principal 
and most valuable among the productions of the earth, the most 
renowned countries for abundance and fertility in this respect, 
were those just mentioned, Palestine, Egypt, and Sicily, and 
besides these, Northern Africa, Sardinia, and Thrace. 

To begin with the last, we learn from Demosthenes, in two of 
his orations, that the Athenians drew from one Thracian city alone, 
Byzantium, two millions four hundred thousand bushels of wheat 
every year. It appears, moreover, that Thrace supplied several 
other towns or countries with the same article; a sufficient proof 
of the extraordinary fertility of that region. 



AGRICULTURE. 431 

"We may judge of that of Palestine from what the Holy Scrip* 
ture says, in many places, of the abundance of wheat and other 
productions with which the land was commonly blessed.* 

Sicily, on account of its astonishing fertility, received the ap- 
pellation of granary and storehouse of the Roman people; in fact, 
from that island Rome procured, for a long time, nearly all the 
wheat that it needed both for the support of its inhabitants and 
the subsistence of its armies.- Sardinia also, according to Livy's 
testimony, afforded a large quantity of wheat to the Romans. The 
same was done by Egypt, when that country had become a prov- 
ince of the Roman empire, and when Rome itself, the capital city of 
those vast dominions, had considerably increased in size and popu- 
lation. This famous capital annually received from Egypt twenty 
millions of bushels of wheat, and so necessary to its support was 
this enormous supply, that without it the people were sometimes 
exposed to the danger of starvation. Commonly, however, there 
existed other resources to provide for their subsistence. 

Africa prcjpe.r, for instance, was not far behind Egypt in use- 
fulness and fertility. If we may credit Pliny the Elder (b. xviii, 
ch. 10), there was a certain district of Africa in which the soil, 
for one bushel of corn, yielded one hundred and fifty bushels; nay, 
it sometimes happened that one grain produced nearly four hun- 
dred grains, as was stated in letters written by some Roman 
governors of that country. This fact, if true, must have very 
seldom occurred; but the same Pliny assures us that, in Sicily 
and Egypt, it was no rare thing to see one grain produce a hun- 
dred; and, on this account, he takes notice of the kind atten- 
tion of Divine Providence, which has ordained that the plants 
destined to supply the usual food of men, and consequently the 
most useful and necessary, should likewise be the most plentiful 
and productive. 

Not only some peculiar district, but the whole coast of northern 
Africa was generally very fertile. This was one of the causes 
of the opulence and great resources of Carthage, which enabled 
that famous republic easily to support numerous armies in time 
of war, and powerfully assist her allies in time of peace. During 
the struggle between Rome and Philip III, king of Macedon, the 
Carthaginian ambassadors supplied the Romans with fifteen hun- 
dred thousand bushels of barley or wheat, and the ambassadors 
of King Masinissa furnished the same quantity. 

These examples, to which many others might be added, are 
sufficient to convince every one of the great fertility with which 
several countries were favored, and of the high esteem entertained 
* Deuter. vii, 13, and viii, 8. — Psalm, iv, 8, and lxiv, 14, etc. 



432 ANCENT HISTORY. Part VII. 

by ancient nations for agriculture. Another evidence of this 
latter truth may be found in the multitude of authors who then 
wrote on the subject of husbandry; Varro counted fifty of them 
among the Greeks alone; and he himself, as well as Cato the 
Censor, Virgil, and Columella, likewise elaborately wrote on the 
various branches of agriculture. Mago, a Carthaginian general, 
had done the same in a learned work of twenty-eight volumes. 
Even crowned heads, such as Hiero II, king of Syracuse, Attalus 
Philometor, of Pergamus,' and Archelaus, of Cappadocia, left 
treatises on the same subject. 

Columella, the most recent of the authors just mentioned, la- 
ments with great force and eloquence the contempt into which 
agriculture had begun to fall at his time, that is, under the reign 
of Tiberius. " I see in Rome," says he, " schools for philosophers, 
rhetoricians, etc.; nay, for cooks and hair dressers, but none for 
agriculture. Still, we might prosper without the other arts, and 
there have been and will be nourishing cities without them ; but 
we cannot subsist without agriculture, since it is the only sure 
support of mankind.* 

" Moreover, of all the means that we may adopt to increase or 
preserve our fortune, is there any one more honest or more inno- 
cent than the cultivation of lands? Could any reasonable person 
set less value upon it than upon the art of war, which gathers 
spoils only at the cost of so much human blood and the ruin of 
so great a number of our fellow-beings? Or upon commerce, 
which requires so many persons to leave their country, to brave 
the dangers of the sea, to encounter the fury of waves and tem- 
pests, and to spend a large portion of their existence in foreign 
and distant countries ? Or upon the practice of usury, so odious 
in itself and so fatal in its consequences ? Could any one presume 
to compare these things with husbandry, that harmless and inno- 
cent manner of life, which nothing else than relaxation of morals 
could bring into contempt and deprive of nearly all its utility V 

These remarks are certainly correct. A land covered with 
crops, trees, plants and flocks, is without doubt more valuable 
for men than a country which produces gold and silver. The 
latter, without the former, would be unable to save them from 
heat, cold, and other inconveniences, especially from hunger; the 
wealthy man, destitute of the productions of the earth, would die 
of starvation upon heaps of money. The farmer, on the contrary, 
sees all around him, in his well cultivated fields, an abundance 

* Sine luclicris artibus .... olira satis felices fuere futuxreque sunt 
urbes ; at sine agricultoribus nee consistere mortales nee ali posse mani 
festurn est. — Coluniel. lib. i. in proem. 



AGRICULTURE. 433 

of most useful riches, which he, indeed, acknowledges with lively 
gratitude as so many gifts of the liberal hand of his Creator but 
which are besides the more agreeable to him, as he is also in- 
debted for them to the instrumentality of his care, industry and 
labor, and to the active part which he took in their production. 

Independently of these immediate and happy effects of agricul- 
ture, it has moreover given rise, on various occasions, to a multitude 
of useful discoveries. To it several of the most important arts 
and sciences owe their origin or their improvement. This was 
the case, not only with mechanics and the working of wood and 
metals for the fabrication of divers necessary instruments, but 
also with geometry, surveying, and astronomy, of which, for this 
reason, as also of geography, we will here say historically a few 
words, and thus close the present chapter on agriculture. 

Necessity or interest led to the invention of geometry and 
surveying. The partition of estates and lands, the determination 
of their respective limits and the just distribution of taxes, 
required some knowledge and application of the principles of 
geometry. Hence the earliest of civilized nations, the Babylo- 
nians, the Egyptians and the Phenicians, are believed to have 
been soon acquainted with the fundamental truths and practical 
application of that science. Yet, the two greatest geometricians 
of antiquity were both of Grecian origin; Euclid, who was a con- 
temporary of Alexander the Great and wrote an excellent work 
on geometry; and Archimedes, whose genius defended Syracuse 
for three years, at the time of the second Punic war, against all 
the forces and attacks of the Romans. 

Astronomy is nearly as ancient as the world. The brilliancy 
of the heavenly bodies and the regularity of their course must, 
from the beginning, have attracted the notice of men ; afterwards 
sagacious persons naturally endeavored to derive rules based on 
the remarks of those who had gone before them, for the purpose 
of ascertaining the periodical return of the seasons and settling 
the order of agricultural operations. The Babylonians or Chal- 
deans are thought to have led the way, and to have been the most 
skilful in the science of astronomy as known to the ancients; they 
were, however, nearly equalled in this respect by both the Egyp- 
tians whose knowledge of the solar year of 365 days may appear 
surprising for its antiquity (see p. 25), and the Phenicians, who 
began, towards the year b. 0, 1250, to steer their course at sea, 
not any longer by the constellation of the Great Bear, as appears 
to have been done before, but by one of the stars of the Little 
Bear, much nearer to the pole. 

About six hundred years before the Christian Era, Thales, one 

37 



434 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VII. 

of the Seven Sages, carried astronomy into Greece, and succeeded 
in foretelling eclipses with considerable accuracy, among others, 
an eclipse of the sun which took place on the 9th of July, B. c. 
577. The greatest astronomers after him, till the Roman em- 
peror Antoninus Pius, were Anaximander of Miletus, a disci- 
ple of Thales, Meton of Athens, Hipparcus of Nice, and 
Ptolemy of Pelusium. Anaximander is believed to have 
taught, first of all, the exact obliquity of the ecliptic, and per- 
haps also the sphericity of the earth, and to have been the 
inventor of artificial globes and geographical maps. Meton first 
used the golden number, that is, a cycle of 19 years, after the 
lapse of which the new moons return, in regular succession, to 
the same days on which they occurred during the preceding 
cycle. Hipparcus and Ptolemy drew up a catalogue of the fixed 
stars then known (1022 in number), and by their sagacious ob- 
servations on the motions of the sun, moon and other heavenly 
bodies, probably carried the science of astronomy to the highest 
degree of perfection which it could reach without the use of our 
astronomical instruments. Pythagoras and his disciples also 
made great progress in that science, and, contrary to the general 
opinion of their time, taught what is now admitted by all astro- 
nomers, that the earth moves round the sun, and that the sun is 
in the centre of the world, (or planetary system). 

Geography, which is so closely connected, if not with agricul- 
ture, at least with astronomy and geometry, owed its origin, as a 
science, to journeys, voyages, commerce, and maritime expeditions. 
As appears from the books of Moses and Josue, it was known, at 
least to a certain degree, at a very early period in some countries, 
particularly in Egypt and Palestine. Its greatest progress, how- 
ever, dated only from the conquests of Alexander and the Romans. 
Hence, notwithstanding the high reputation enjoyed by Homer 
and Anaximander for their skill in that science, the best geogra- 
phers of antiquity were beyond comparison men of much later 
ages, for instance, Ptolemy the astronomer, and Strabo, a native 
of Cappadocia. The regions of the earth then known, were 
central, western, and part of southern Asia; Ethiopia and Egypt, 
with the rest of northern Africa; and nearly the whole of 
Europe. 



COMMERCE. 435 



COMMERCE. 



Next to agriculture, commerce may be justly considered the 
most fruitful source of social advantages to mankind. In the first 
place, men are indebted to it, if not for the invention, at least for 
the improvement and rapid progress of arithmetic; for the art of 
drawing up accounts, keeping registers, and conducting factories ; 
for the use of weights and measures, etc. All these, however, con- 
stitute neither the greatest nor the direct and immediate advan- 
tages of commerce. — If agriculture renders nations happy and se- 
cure, commerce renders them wealthy and powerful. It is no ex- 
aggeration to say that, of all the natural bonds of civil society, 
commerce is one of the strongest and most effectual; it is, in fact, 
the very best means to connect together the different parts of the 
earth by a reciprocity of services. It spreads or tends to spread 
abundance and ease everywhere. By it the whole world becomes, 
as it were, one and the same family ; the riches of one people are 
made the riches of another, and reciprocally the advantages ari- 
sing from the soil or from industry possessed by the latter, are 
communicated to the former, thus enabling men to enjoy many 
conveniences of life which, without commercial intercourse, they 
never would have known or possessed. 

The origin of commerce nearly coincides with that of society. 
It naturally arose from the different circumstances in which men 
were placed ; from the diversity of their talents or industry; and 
from the variety of earthly productions, fruits and other advan- 
tages of different countries. Mere exchanges at first took place 
between private individuals and families : the successful hunter 
gave a part of the game he had killed, for some of the eata- 
bles growing in his neighbor's field; he who had reaped more 
wheat or corn than he needed for the support of himself and 
his family, exchanged some of it for a proportionate quantity of 
honey, fruit, oil and otlier necessaries. 

Necessity thus gave rise to commerce. In a short time, the 
knowledge and experience of its utility, together with a desire to 
procure every possible convenience, increased it and enlarged the 
sphere of its action; it gradually extended from city to city and 
from province to province, till, by the continual addition of new 
means, facilities, discoveries and successes, it finally comprised 
the whole world. 

Long before this, men had perceived the embarrassment and 
difficulty which usually attended the primitive manner of conduct- 
ing trade. On a thousand occasions, the articles to be exchanged 



436 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VII. 

were far from having the same value; indeed, it seldom happened 
that the price of one ohjeet was exactly or even nearly the same 
with that of another. The case, likewise, must have frequently 
occurred that sellers could not afford what the purchasers wanted, 
and vice versa; and besides, several articles of trade could not be 
divided, even when occasion required, without losing either the 
whole or at least a considerable portion of their value. For these 
reasons, it became necessary to find out an easier method for 
trading, and to adopt in common, by universal consent, some 
representative of the value of every kind of mercantile objects, 
and thus settle the worth of each of them, so as to facilitate the 
performance of all commercial transactions. It was soon per- 
ceived that metals, by their solidity, brilliancy and other qualities, 
were the best fitted for this purpose ; gold, silver and copper or 
brass, were therefore introduced into commerce, and universally 
adopted by civilized nations as representatives of the value of all 
articles of trade. 

We learn from Sacred History that the use of specie or coin was 
known at a very early period.* Abraham, having purchased a 
burying place for his wife and family, gave for it four hundred 
sides of silver, of common current money (b. c. 1859). He 
himself, on a previous occasion, had received a thousand pieces 
of silver from Abimelech, king of G-erara; and Joseph, his great- 
grandson, was sold by his brethren for the sum of twenty pieces 
of silver to some Ismaelite and Madianite merchants that were 
going to Egypt (b. c. 1728). 

This latter fact, in particular, plainly shows the antiquity of 
commerce in certain countries. The Madianite merchants, just 
mentioned, were coming from Galaad with their camels, carrying 
spices, and balm, and myrrh, which they intended to sell in 
Egypt. A traffic of this kind necessarily supposes that commerce 
was already in full operation, and even embraced a great number 
of objects, inasmuch as the productions just mentioned are rather 
luxuries than matters of necessity. 

But the most important objects of trade were corn and wheat. 
Egypt, on account of its fertility, was conspicuous in this respect, 
and in times of famine proved an ample resource for other coun- 
tries; witness the protracted scarcity which occurred during the 
life of Jacob, when that kingdom, by the wise management of his 
Bon Joseph, was enabled, not only to support its own inhabitants, 
but even tf supply foreigners from all the neighboring provinces 
with provisions of grain. f There existed so regular a communica- 
tion between these various countries, that Jacob, whose residence 
* See Gen. xx, xxiii, xxxvii, etc. f Gen. xli, 57. 



COMMERCE. 437 

was in the land of Chanaan, became very soon apprized of the 
abundance of corn which was found in Egypt; nay, people had 
already conceived the happy idea of establishing inns or resting 
places in the way, for the convenience of travellers.* 

It is true, however, notwithstanding all this, that the ancient 
Egyptians were not peculiarly remarkable as a commercial nation; 
and the same may be said of the Assyrians and Babylonians, al- 
though they are believed to have carried on an extensive trade 
through the river Euphrates and the Persian gulph. The palm 
in this respect ought to be awarded, among the states of remote 
antiquity, to the Phenicians and their chief colony, the Carthagi- 
nians. Never was there a clearer proof of the height of power, 
glory and wealth, which a nation may attain through an assidu- 
ous and almost exclusive application to commerce. 

The Phenicians occupied a narrow neck of land along the coast 
of the Mediterranean sea. This tract possessed no great advan- 
tages for agriculture; and the city of Tyre itself was built upon a 
barren soil, whose productions bore no proportion whatever to the 
number of its inhabitants. Various resources of another kind 
amply supplied this deficiency: the Phenicians possessed very 
good harbors, especially in their chief cities Sidon and Tyre; their 
natural genius, moreover, fitted them so well for all the operations 
of trade, that they applied to it with the greatest success, and 
appear even to have been the first to introduce maritime com- 
merce, particularly that which requires voyages of long duration 
and to a considerable distance. As Mount Libanus and other 
mountains in the neighborhood furnished them with excellent 
timber for the construction of their ships, they in a short time 
equipped numerous fleets, which boldly advanced farther and far- 
ther across unknown seas for the sake of mercantile enterprise. 
Nor did they confine their course to the coasts and harbors of the 
Mediterranean sea, but, passing the Strait of Gadez (now Gibral- 
ter), they entered the Atlantic, and extended their commerce 
both to the left and to the right, along the shores of western Africa 
and western Europe. 

In the meanwhile, their population rapidly increased from the 
great number of strangers attracted by the desire of gain and the 
facility of acquiring wealth. This enabled them to establish sev- 
eral colonies abroad, among others the famous colony of Carthage, 
which, by preserving the industrious, active and bold enterpri- 
sing spirit of the early Phenicians, was not surpassed by Tyre 
itself in the extent of commercial business, and far surpassed it 
in extent of dominion and in the splendor of its military exploits. 

* Gen. xlii, 27. 
37* 



438 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VII. 

What profane authors relate of the industry, commerce, riches 
and magnificence of Tyre, is fully corroborated by the testimony 
of sacred writers. "Is not this," exclaims Isaias, "your city, 
which gloried from old in her antiquity .... Tyre that was for- 
merly crowned, whose merchants were princes, and her traders 
the nobles of the earth?"* Another prophet, Ezechiel, is still 
more explicit, and his words on the subject are the more worthy 
of notice, as they convey a full idea of the commerce of ancient 
nations. They are as follows : 

" Tyre, that dwelleth at the entry of the sea, being the mart of 
the people for many islands .... The Carthaginians, thy mer- 
chants, supplied thy fairs with a multitude of all kinds of riches, 
with silver, iron, tin, and lead. Greece, Thubal, and Mosoch, 
they were thy merchants : they brought to thy people slaves and 
vessels of brass. From the house of Thogorma they brought 
horses, and horsemen, and mules to thy market. The men of 
Dedan were thy merchants : many islands were the traffic of thy 
hand; they exchanged for thy price teeth of ivory, and ebony. 
The Syrian was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of thy 
works : they set forth precious stones, and purple, and broidered 
works, and fine linen, and silk in thy market. Juda and the land 
of Israel, they were thy merchants with the best corn : they set 
forth balm, and honey, and oil, and rosin in thy fairs. The men 
of Damascus were thy merchants in the multitude of thy works, 
in the multitude of divers riches, in rich wine, in wool of the best 
color. Dan, and Greece, and Mosel, have set forth in thy marts 
wrought iron : stacte and calamus were in thy market. The men 
of Dedan were thy merchants in tapestry for seats. Arabia, and 
all the princes of Cedar, they were the merchants of thy hand : 
thy merchants came to thee with lambs, and rams, and kids. 
The sellers of Saba and Heema, they were thy merchants, with 
all the best spices, and precious stones, and gold, which they set 
forth in thy market .... What city is like Tyre, which is become 
silent in the midst of the sea? Which by thy merchandise that 
went from thee by sea, didst fill many people : which by the mul- 
titude of thy riches, and of thy people, didst enrich the kings of 
the earth."| 

Thus it seems as if all the merchandise of the world was gath- 
ered in that city alone, and the various tribes of the earth were 
her tributaries rather than her allies; the extent of her commerce 
knew indeed no other boundaries than those of the known world. 
For this reason did she regard herself as the queen of the sea, 

* lsa. xxiii, 7, 8. f Ezechiel, ch. xxvii. 



COMMERCE. 439 

and the common emporium of nations; she gave them in exchange 
for their treasures, the produce of other countries imported by 
her vessels, and the works of her own industry, which were at 
the same time very numerous and valuable. 

Whilst Sidon, the mother-country of Tyre, was celebrated for 
the fabrication of linen, cloth, tapestry and precious veils; for 
the art of working metals and wood, the invention of glass, etc.; 
Tyre itself was renowned for its ivory-works, the dyeing of cloth 
and stuffs, above all, the use and application of the purple-color, 
that had been originally discovered, it is said, by a mere accident. 
A shepherd's dog, tormented by hunger and finding nothing where- 
with to satisfy it, took and broke between his teeth a shell on the 
sea-shore. Blood having gushed from the shell-fish immediately 
stained the dog's mouth with a beautiful color, the sight of which 
filled every beholder with admiration. The Tyrians, with their 
usual industry and skill, quickly sought to apply this discovery 
to the art of dyeing, nor was the experiment in vain; their efforts 
proved perfectly successful, and they gave to the purple so high 
a value in the judgment of antiquity, that the use of it was almost 
exclusively reserved for sovereigns, princes, and other great dig- 
nitaries of states. 

It has been related in another part of this volume (p. 97), 
that the ancient city of Tyre was destroyed by Nabuchodonosor, 
after a very arduous and painful siege which had lasted thirteen 
years. Mention was also made in the same place, of the new 
city of Tyre, built immediately after the destruction of the first, 
in a neighboring island. It soon regained the empire of the sea, 
and continued in the same career of enterprise and traffic with at 
least as much success and prosperity as before, till, being itself 
taken by Alexander the Great (see p. 232), it lost its powerful 
navy, extensive trade and immense revenues, and yielded its lofty 
title of emporium of all the east, to the rising city of Alexandria. 

Whilst the Phenician capital underwent so many revolutions, 
Carthage, the principal of its colonies, had become very flourish- 
ing. After the first difficulties which it had to encounter, commerce 
gave it a rapid increase, and in the course of time rendered it so 
powerful, that it was able to contend with the Romans for the 
empire of the west. Its geographical position was still more advan- 
tageous than that of Tyre. Placed at an equal distance from both 
extremities of the Mediterranean sea, it could easily reach them 
by means of its fleets; and the northern coast of Africa, a vast 
and fertile region in the midst of which it stood, supplied it with 
all things necessary for the subsistence of its population. 

These Africans, adding to so many advantages that of a mitu- 



4-10 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VII. 

ral aptness for navigation and trade, an aptness acquired in Pheni- 
cia, became so skilful at sea, that, according to the testimony of 
Polybius, they had in this respect no equals in the world. In 
this way did they prosper and increase, and finally reach such a 
height of power, that, notwithstanding the severe losses inflicted 
on them by the first and second Punic wars, they had still, at the 
beginning of the third, no fewer than three hundred cities of 
northern Africa in their possession, besides a population of seven 
hundred thousand inhabitants in Carthage alone. 

In more ancient times, the Carthaginians had extended their 
sway not only over all that coast which extends from the great 
Syrtes near Libya to the straits of Gadez, but even over another 
large extent of country south of those straits, where Hanno, one of 
their greatest men, established several colonies and built many 
cities. They likewise subdued a considerable portion of Spain, 
and under Asdrubal, the successor of Amilcar Barcas and the 
immediate predecessor of Annibal in the command of their troops, 
founded there the celebrated colony and city of Carthago Nova. 
Sardinia also, with an extensive part of Sicily, had formerly sub- 
mitted to their laws. 

The immediate cause of all this greatness, as we have just 
remarked, was the astonishing relish for trade which pervaded 
that nation. The Carthaginians spared neither time, care, nor 
expense, to enlarge and improve their commerce; this was, it 
maybe,said their predominant passion and the chief end of all their 
endeavors. The other arts and sciences were generally neglected 
and disregarded at Carthage, nor was there any one who professed 
himself to be an orator, a philosopher, or a poet, as the atten- 
tion of youth was directed, from their infancy, to the various 
parts of mercantile business. Skill in traffic was reputed the 
best portion of their inheritance, and, as they added their own 
reflections and industry to the experience of their fathers, it is 
not to be wondered at, that the Carthaginians became so conspic- 
uous in the world as a commercial nation. 

Ambition, as frequently happens, was the occasion of their 
ruin. It cost them dear to exchange the ordinary and pacific 
course of traffic for the glory of arms and the advantages of con- 
quests. Their state, which commerce had rendered so nourishing, 
experienced a diminution of population and strength, from the 
necessity of continually raising troops for new expeditions and 
providing reinforcements for their armies. On the other hand, 
their fleets, which formerly carried merchants and mercantile ob- 
jects, were henceforth used principally to convey soldiers and 
implements of war 3 their citizens became warriors; their magis- 



COMMERCE. 441 

trates, generals. Some of the latter, it is true, gained for them- 
selves and their country immortal honor on the field of battle; 
but this military prosperity was of short duration, and could 
prevent neither their decline, nor their entire overthrow. 

Let us now return to the eastern nations. The conquest of 
Tyre and the foundation of Alexandria by Alexander produced 
a great change in commercial relations, especially throughout the 
east; the tide of extensive traffic left the former, to concentrate 
itself in the latter city, whose situation was the best that could 
be desired to become a centre of communication between the 
various nations of the then known world. Alexandria was able 
to maintain an easy intercourse with the regions of Asia, through 
the isthmus of Suez and the Red sea; through the same sea and 
the river Nile, with Ethiopia; and through the Mediterranean, 
with the other parts of western Asia, all northern Africa, and 
nearly all Europe. As to the inland commerce, there was also 
every facility afforded by both the navigation on the Nile or nu- 
merous canals with which Egypt was intersected, and by means 
of caravans or companies of travelling merchants, so useful for 
their personal safety and the transport of their goods. 

The consideration of these advantages led Alexander to the 
conclusion that a city built on such a spot, and favored besides 
with an excellent harbor, might become one of the most flourish- 
ing and wealthy cities on earth. His expectations were fully 
realized, if not during his life, at least shortly after his death. 
The Ptolemies, his successors in the possession and government 
of Egypt, took an assiduous care to encourage and improve the 
rising commerce of Alexandria ; their exertions proved so benefi- 
cial, and the trade carried on by that city was rendered so pros- 
perous and so extensive, that both Tyre and Carthage, formerly so 
much celebrated in this particular, were almost buried in oblivion. 

Among all the Egyptian kings of that period, Ptolemy Phila- 
delphus was the most zealous and successful in patronizing com- 
merce. To secure the execution of his designs, he maintained at 
sea numerous fleets, the bare enumeration and description of 
which, as found in Athenteus, can hardly be read without aston- 
ishment. Besides a hundred and twenty vessels of extraordinary 
size, there were four thousand other ships for the service of the 
state and the advancement of commercial interest; and this num- 
ber, if we take every thing into consideration, was not excessive 
for the extent of his dominions. Philadelphus was the sovereign 
of a vast empire, founded by the valor and prudence of his father 
Ptolemy Lagus, and comprising (besides Egypt), Libya, Palestine 
and Phenicia, with a part of Arabia ; Ethiopia and Syria ; also se- 



442 ANCIENT HISTORY. Paet VII. 

veral provinces of Asia Minor, that is, Lycia, Caria, Cilicia and 
Pamphylia; in fine, Cyprus and many other islands. 

The number of cities belonging to this extensive monarchy 
amounted to nearly four thousand. They were situated in some 
of the most fertile countries of the world ) but Philadelphus, not 
satisfied with this advantage, undertook to make his kingdom the 
principal seat of all the commerce between the east and west, and 
succeeded in the attempt. He not only rendered maritime trade 
perfectly active and secure by means of his numerous fleets, but 
moreover founded a city on the western shore of the Red sea, to 
receive all the merchandise from Arabia, India, Persia and Ethi- 
opia; he then opened an easy communication between that sea and 
the river Nile, by means of a canal and a high-road that traversed 
the whole country by the side of each other ; and finally he estab- 
lished inns along the road for the convenience of merchants and 
travellers. 

This facility of transport and travelling made the city of Alex- 
andria a sort of universal emporium, and caused the riches of the 
whole earth to flow abundantly into Egypt. The amount of 
wealth obtained from commerce was enormous, since, notwith- 
standing the great moderation of the Ptolemies in the laying of 
taxes, the duties alone in the above named city produced a yearly 
revenue of probably fifteen millions of dollars ; and Philadelphus 
left at his death more than a hundred millions of pounds sterling 
in the treasury. 

Tyre, Carthage and Alexandria were, beyond comparison, the 
most commercial cities of antiquity. Trade, however, was car- 
ried on with great activity, though not with equal splendor nor 
upon so large a scale, in several other places, such as Corinth, 
Rhodes, Marseilles, and generally in the cities of Grecian origin. 

As to the Romans, they never thought it in accordance with 
their national character, to make a peculiar profession of commerce. 



NAVIGATION. 

Commerce and navigation are intimately connected, if not in 
their first origin, at least in their effects and destination ; support- 
ing and improving each other, they prosper or decline together. 
If navigation is indebted to the spirit of commercial enterprise 
for its progress and discoveries, commerce likewise owes to navi- 
gation its most brilliant success. For this reason, while we spoke 
at length of the one in the preceding section, we unavoidably 
touch occasionally upon the other ; yet much remains to be said 
on the interesting subject of navigation. 



NAVIGATION. 443 

Of all the arts which require sagacity and genius, there is none, 
perhaps, more honorable to the human mind than the art of nav- 
igation; so much so, that it might seem, in some measure, to 
exceed the ordinary limits of man's courage and intelligence. 
"What is more admirable, in the whole natural range of human 
actions, than to see a weak and frail being reach every part of the 
globe across the immensity of seas, direct either a small bark or 
an enormous vessel on the broad ocean, and not only brave the 
fury of winds and waves, but even turn them to his own use, 
and enable himself through their means the sooner to arrive at 
his destination ? Is not this well calculated to inspire men, not with 
self-esteem and pride, but with a lively sense of gratitude to the 
Author of all good, who has endowed them with so many precious 
faculties ? 

Independently of the conclusion that might be drawn from the 
recollection of Noe's ark, the idea of navigation must have been sug- 
gested to the minds of men by the sight of logs, branches, and various 
pieces of wood, floating on the waters. AVithout doubt, this art, 
like all other arts, except those absolutely necessary for human life, 
was very imperfect in the beginning. Rafts or logs joined 
together, trunks of trees carved in a certain fashion, and small 
boats or canoes, were at that time, as they are still among uncivi- 
lized tribes, the only vessels possessed by men; the size, bulk 
and solidity of those vessels increased only in proportion with 
man's experience, his boldness and courage animated by success, 
as well as the intended length of his subsequent voyages. It is 
thought, or at least conjectured, that the idea of using oars, rud- 
ders and sails, came successively from an attentive consideration 
of the manner in which fish move in the water, and birds in the 
air;* but necessity alone was probably sufficient to lead the ear- 
liest navigators to devise the use of anchors. 

Whether these conjectures be well founded or not, it is certain 
that the first attempts at navigation took place at a very remote 
period, and near the epoch of the Deluge. Moses relates that 
" the islands of the gentiles" were divided among the sons of 
Javan, a grand-son of Noe. It is plain also from other sources, 
that very early colonies passed from Egypt and Phenicia into 

* Some think that the practice of sails may have originated in the 
cm-ious spectacle presented by the animal called Nautilus. Its shell 
has somewhat the figure of a shallop; consequently the animal, when 
the sea is calm, uses it as a boat, employing six of its tentacula as oars, 
and uplifting two, which are spread out as sails. If the sea becomes 
rough, or an enemy appears, the sails and oars are instantly drawn 
within the shell, and the shallop sinks. 



444 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VII. 

Greece ; certainly both Greece and other maritime countries were 
thus reached only through the means of navigation. 

The Phenicians, in particular, were the most skilful and expe- 
rienced seamen during those ages of remote antiquity, and to 
them was ascribed the honor of having first known how to steer, 
and to direct their course at sea by observing the stars. It was 
with the assistance of the Phenicians that Solomon, the third 
king of the Hebrews, succeeded in equipping a fleet, and carried 
on a prosperous commerce with distant regions. "King Solo- 
mon," says the sacred writer, " made a fleet in Asiongaber, which 
is by Ailath on the shore of the Red sea, in the land of Edom. 
And Hiram* sent his servants in the fleet, sailors that had know- 
ledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon. And they came 
to Ophir;f and they brought from thence to king Solomon four 
hundred and twenty talents of gold. "J 

It was also by the help of the Phenicians that Nechao, the 
Egyptian king, successfully carried on a still more arduous under- 
taking. By order of this prince, and under the guidance of 
seamen of that nation, a fleet set sail from the shores of the Red 
sea, for the purpose of circumnavigating Africa and returning to 
Egypt through the strait of Gadez (now Gibraltar), and the Medi- 
terranean sea. This order was faithfully executed. The Pheni- 
cians, on leaving the Red sea, entered the Southern ocean, and 
constantly followed the coast on their right. When the season of 
autumn arrived, they landed in a favorable spot, sowed grain 
there, waited for its maturity, and having reaped the harvest, 
reembarke4. in order to prosecute their expedition. They spent 
two years in circumnavigating Africa, before they reached the 
strait of Gadez • then entering the Mediterranean, they came to 
the mouth of the Nile in the third year of their voyage. 

The Carthaginians scarcely yielded to the Phenicians, their 
ancestors, in boldness of enterprise and success in navigation. 
During the sixth century before the Christian era, they commis- 
sioned Hanno, an experienced admiral, to explore the western 
coast of Africa; he did so, and judging from his own relation, 
which is still extant, he went as far, at least, as the fifth degree 
of north latitude. It is even highly probable that America was 
known to the Carthaginians; that they were delighted with the 
fertility of the land ) but that the senate, for this very reason, 



* King of the celebrated city of Tyre in Phenicia. 
f Ophir, a rich and distant country, some say, of Southern Asia, others, 
of Eastern Africa. 
% 3 Kings ix, 26—28. 



NAVIGATION. 445 

would not countenance any further pursuit in that direction, for 
fear of depopulating their republic (see Modern History, p. 352). 

It is, however, true that ancient voyages were, generally 
speaking, neither very long, nor to be compared with those un- 
dertaken and executed in modern times. The reason of this 
difference is very simple and natural. The mariner's compass 
was unknown to the navigators of old, and they had no other 
guide to steer their course, than the sun during the day, and the 
stars during the night; when, on account of the clouds, this gui- 
dance failed them, they knew no longer in what direction they 
advanced, and they wandered at random and at the mercy of the 
waves. For this reason, they made it a general rule not to steer 
far from the coasts, nor undertake voyages to a great distance 
across the sea; and it must be confessed that the dangers of navi- 
gation, owing to the same circumstance, were then much greater 
than they are at present. The mariner's compass, which began 
to be used only during the crusades, has removed these difficul- 
ties : whatever may be the state of the atmosphere in the day- 
time or during the night, the magnetic needle, by its directive 
property, always tells the pilot of the direction in which he is 
actually going, and of the course he has to take. Hence, it is 
in a great measure to the knowledge of this singular property of 
the magnet, which the ancients did not even suspect, that mo- 
dern nations have been indebted for the discovery of America and 
the circumnavigation of the globe. 

In the beginning, and for a certain length of time, the use of 
a navy was probably confined to purposes of trade or colonization ; 
perhaps also the desire of pillaging coasts and maritime towns, or 
a spirit of conquest and adventure, had some share in it. This last 
seems to have been the cause of the famous Argonautic expedi- 
tion of Jason and other Grecian princes across the Euxine sea, 
about the year B. c. 1253. Shortly after, the Greeks equipped 
their famous fleet of twelve hundred ships for the Trojan expedi- 
tion ; still we do not read of any naval battle fought between them 
and the Trojans, and the same is to be remarked of the fleet prepared 
by Sesostris, the Egyptian king, for the conquest of the maritime 
provinces situated near the. Red sea. Navigation therefore was 
not yet applied to regular operations of war on the sea itself; this 
required a greater bulk in the ships and greater boldness or expe- 
rience in their crews, than could be supposed to exist during the 
first ages, and it may be conjectured to have first taken place only 
about the sixth or seventh century before the coming of Christ. 

From that time, there existed among the ancients, as is the 
case among us, two kinds of ships, some intended fur merchant 

33 



446 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VII. 

vessels or transports, and others destined for war. The former 
were called by the Latins onerarue 7iaves, from their destination, 
and the other, longce naves, from their peculiar form ; as in the 
following sentence of Livy (b. xxv, n. 27) : " Bomilcar centum tri- 
ginta navibus longis et septingentis onerariis profectus." Since, 
moreover, the use of oars was much more frequent then than at 
present, the long vessels were again of different sorts ; there were 
those which had only one row of oars, for instance, fifteen, twen- 
ty-five, or fifty oars on each side of the vessel; and others had two 
or more banks of oars placed obliquely over one another, being 
for this reason called biremes, triremes, quinqueremes, etc. 

To the Corinthians was attributed the honor of having changed 
the ancient form of vessels, and of having, first of all, built ships 
supplied with three, and perhaps five banks of oars. Syracuse, a 
colony of Corinth, successfully undertook to imitate the mother- 
country, and even surpassed it in this respect. The frequent and 
protracted wars in which the Syracusans were engaged against 
the republic of Carthage, obliged them to bestow special care on 
their navy; and this, added to other favorable circumstances, 
contributed to render Syracuse one of the greatest maritime pow- 
ers of that period. 

Generally speaking, Greece in early times was not much dis- 
tinguished for her naval strength. As to the Spartans in particu- 
lar, it had been one of the chief objects of Lycurgus's legislation 
not to allow them the possession and use of a regular navy ; his 
reason for this measure was to prevent, as much as possible, 
intercourse with strangers, lest it should weaken the severity of 
those maxims he had sought to establish among his people, and 
alter the simplicity of their manners. The practical contempt in 
which industry, commerce, and the arts were held at Sparta, 
must have been an insuperable obstacle to the improvement and 
prosperity of her navy; hence it naturally happened that the 
Spartans, for a long time and till they were engaged in distant 
and difficult wars, had but very few vessels. 

The same remark applies to the republic of Athens during the 
first period of its existence, till the battle of Marathon (b. c. 490). 
Themistocles, whose sagacious mind dived, as it were, into futu- 
rity, and foresaw what was further to be feared from the Persians, 
directed all the attention and solicitude of his countrymen towards 
the increase of their navy. Having prevailed on the Athenians 
to raise the number of their vessels to two hundred, he, by this 
prudent foresight, enabled his country to avert the awful storm 
with which it was threatened. 

Things were in this situation, when the formidable armament 



NAVIGATION. 447 

of the Persians under Xerxes came to attack Greece. Their 
fleet, independently of three thousand smaller vessels and trans- 
ports, consisted of more than twelve hundred galleys, having each 
three banks of oars, with two hundred and thirty men. The 
other ships, one hundred and twenty in number, furnished by 
the European allies of Persia, had each two hundred men on 
board; and as the Athenian galleys that went, sixty-five years 
later, to {he attack of Sicily. and Syracuse, carried an equal num- 
ber of persons, this may be supposed to have been the usual 
amount of men in ancient vessels of war. 

It would be difficult to tell how many, out of this amount, 
were destined to fight, and how many belonged to the crew. 
Historians say very little on this particular; Plutarch, however 
(in the life of Themistocles), speaking of the Athenian galleys 
which fought at Salamis, states that each of them had no more 
than eighteen combatants, fourteen of whom were heavy armed 
men, and the remaining four were archers. 

This assuredly was a very inconsiderable amount; yet, the 
Athenians did not the less, on that account, show in this famous 
battle an undaunted courage, which contributed most to the vic- 
tory. They afterwards continued to signalize themselves at sea 
during the whole course of the Persian war, particularly at My- 
cale, and in the celebrated battles under Cimon at the mouth of 
the river Eurymedon and near the island of Cyprus. Their navy 
persevered in a flourishing and prosperous condition during the 
whole administration of Pericles. The superior number of their 
vessels enabled them for a long time, at the period of the Pelo- 
ponnesian war, to cope even successfully with most of the other 
Grecian states. But the Sicilian expedition, which they undertook 
contrary to the advice of their wisest and most experienced lead- 
ers, gave a deadly blow to their maritime preponderance; the supe- 
riority of power they had long enjoyed at sea, was utterly destroyed 
by the last battle which they fought in the harbor of Syracuse. 

Still, this overthrow, however signal and complete, did not en- 
tirely ruin the affairs and resources of the Athenians. They par- 
tially recovered from the terrible blow just inflicted on them by 
that unfortunate expedition; nay, with a fortitude and energy 
worthy of a magnanimous people, they equipped new fleets, which 
enabled them again to contend for victory and superiority at sea. 
The reader may recall to mind the brilliant success they still ob- 
tained in some naval engagements, and particularly at the cele- 
brated battle near the Arginusoe islands, in which their fleet of one 
hundred and fifty vessels, under the command of ten generals, 
signally defeated the Lacedaemonians and the brave admiral Calli- 



448 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VII. 

cratidas. No later than the ensuing year, they were in their turn 
so completely vanquished by Lysander at iEgos Potainos, that, of 
a hundred and eighty Athenian vessels, only nine escaped with 
Conon, one of their leaders (see p. 178). 

The naval power of Greece was revived after the death of 
Alexander the Great, when his immediate successors fought both 
by land and sea, to possess themselves of some portion of his vast 
empire. Above all, the navy of Antigonus and of Demetrius, 
his son, was for a long time, on a most respectable footing. The 
latter, on one occasion, had under his command a hundred and 
eighty galleys, with which he gave an entire overthrow to the Grrseco- 
Egyptian fleet under Ptolemy Lagus ; in another, he steered with 
three hundred and thirty vessels to the relief of Athens, then 
occupied by Cassander; and finally, at a later period, he equipped 
no fewer than five hundred ships for the invasion of Asia, though 
his design, for various causes, never was put in execution. 

This Demetrius, well known in history under the surname of 
Poliorcetes, was endowed with a wonderful genius, not only for 
the invention of military engines to be used on land, but also 
with regard to the construction of ships and galleys. Every one 
was surprised at the greatness as well as the number of his works; 
for no man, before his time, ever saw a galley with fifteen or 
sixteen banks of oars. Afterwards, indeed, Ptolemy Philopator 
built one of forty banks of oars : its length was two hundred and 
eighty cubits or nearly four hundred and fifty feet, its breadth 
about sixty feet, and its height to the top of the prow, at least 
seventy-two or seventy-five feet. Four hundred mariners belonged 
to it, exclusive of the rowers, who were no fewer than four thou- 
sand, and the decks with the several interstices were capable of 
containing near three thousand soldiers. This, however, was 
mere matter of curiosity ; for so enormous a galley differed little 
from an immoveable building, and was calculated more for show 
than for use, as it could not be put in motion without great diffi- 
culty and danger. 

But the ships of Demetrius had their use as well as beauty; 
with all their magnificence of construction, they were equally fit 
for fighting, and though admirable for their size, were still more 
so for the swiftness of their movements. His friends were as- 
tonished at their bulk, and his very enemies admired their beauty. 
Lysimachus, who of all the princes of his time was the bitterest 
enemy of Demetrius, desired him once to show him his engines 
of war and his galleys in motion ; and he was so struck with tha 
sight, that he immediately retired.* 

* Plutarch, in Demetr. 



NAVIGATION. 449 

Still, if every thing is taken into consideration, it will be ad- 
mitted that the Carthaginians and the Romans were the greatest 
naval powers of antiquity. The former had always been remark- 
able as such, almost from the foundation of their republic; the 
latter, on the contrary, during the first five centuries of their 
existence, hardly knew any thing about fleets and galleys manned 
for war. Being constantly engaged, all that time, in fighting and 
subduing the nations or tribes of continental Italy, they stood in 
no need of maritime forces ; and even at the beginning of the 
Punic wars, they were still deficient in this point to such a 
degree, as to be under the necessity of borrowing vessels from 
their neighbors for the transportation of their troops into Sicily. 

Yet, the Romans at this time soon perceived that they could 
not cope with the Carthaginians, so long as the latter were mas- 
ters at sea ; they therefore determined to raise a navy of their 
own, and fight their opponents by sea as well as by land. A Car- 
thaginian galley that happened to be stranded on the Italian 
coast, was made use of by them as a model ; and such was their 
earnestness for the accomplishment of the work, that, at the close 
of two months,, they had equipped a hundred galleys, having each 
five banks of oars, and twenty others having three. They also 
drilled rowers and sailors with great diligence and care, and their 
efforts proved so successful, that, in the very first naval battle 
fought by them (b. c. 260), they defeated the Carthaginians. 

Four years later, exertions upon a much larger scale were made 
by the two parties. The Romans put to sea no fewer than three 
hundred and thirty ships, having on board a hundred and forty 
thousand men, under the command of the two consuls, Manlius 
and Regulus. The Carthaginians opposed them with a still 
more numerous fleet, since it consisted of three hundred and fifty 
or sixty vessels, carrying, it is said, upwards of a hundred and 
fifty thousand men. These armaments of two mighty republics, 
which led to the decisive battle of Ecnomus, near the coast of 
Sicily, may be justly regarded as the most powerful and formi- 
dable that ever appeared at sea. The only naval forces that might 
bear a comparison with them, were those of the Greeks and Per- 
sians in the battle of Salamis, and of the two opposite parties of 
the Romans in the battle of Actium between Octavius Ccesar and 
Mark Antony — both of them mentioned in this volume; finally, 
those of the Christians and Turks in the battle of Lepanto (a. d 
1571), when the Christians, with about two hundred and forty 
ships, defeated and almost annihilated a Turkish fleet of nearly 
three hundred vessels, inflicting on them a loss of two hundred 
and forty or fifty galleys and thirty-five thousand men, besides thu 



450 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VII. 

liberation from their hands of fifteen thousand prisoners or Chris- 
tian slaves. 

The last illustrations and particulars belong, not only to the art 
of navigation, but also to the military art, of which we have now 
to speak more directly and at greater length, though, according 
to our custom, in a merely historical manner. 



MILITARY ART. 

It is an unfortunate fact that, ever since the fall of our first 
parents, the spirit of discord has made dreadful ravages upon 
earth. Quarrels and fights were almost coeval With men, because 
envy, the chief cause of public as well as private animosities, most 
easily finds its way to the human heart; it was envy, indeed, that 
spilled the first blood and caused the first death, as the Holy 
Scriptures give us fully to understand.* 

When, after the dispersion of mankind, a certain number of 
families agreed to live together, the interests of the private indi- 
viduals who composed these associations became in some measure 
common to all. Then also hostilities began to take place between 
the different tribes, some, under the wretched influence of revenge, 
ambition and cupidity, attempting to inflict, and others, under the 
better plea of necessity, intending to repel injuries. The first 
wars, however, were nothing more than transient inroads ; parties 
of marauders set out, the enemy's territory was invaded and laid 
waste, its buildings were destroyed, its cattle and herds carried 
off, and its inhabitants led away captives. The warring parties 
were not then bent on making conquests; as revenge or jealousy 
was the main object of those early expeditions, no sooner was this 
object sufficiently attained, than the campaign was over, and 
every one returned to his own settlement. 

These views were changed and modified, when the number of 
families subjected to the same rule became so great as to form a 
nation or political body under a sovereign; then ambition arose 
and began to unfold its many schemes of aggrandizement. Mo- 
narchs thought of enlarging their dominions. For this purpose, 
they carefully reflected on the means of ensuring success, and en- 
deavored to make warfare an art ; whilst, on the other hand, they 
proposed to themselves, in their military expeditions, motives 
different from a mere desire of annoying an enemy, and aimed at 
deriving greater and more lasting advantages from their cam- 
paigns than the bare effects of a transient invasion. The political 

* Gen. ch. iv, and 1 John iii, 12. 



MILITARY ART. 451 

art joined its interests with the cravings of ambition, and directed 
the latter in its proceedings. Sometimes, too, humanity exercised 
a beneficial influence in the midst of public contests; a certain 
check was put to the ravages of war, and means were sought to 
keep the vanquished under subjection, rather than mercilessly 
devote them to entire ruin. Such was the origin of the first 
empires that existed in the world. They acquired more or less 
extent, in proportion to the degree of ambition, skill and prospe- 
rity of the sovereigns by whom they were founded. 

The first instance recorded in writing of a war undertaken for 
the sake of conquest, is traced to the times of Abraham, nineteen 
hundred years before the Christian era. The book of Genesis, 
describing the life and actions of this holy patriarch, in order to 
show how constantly he was favored and protected by Grod, relates 
on that occasion how a war broke out between many princes of 
the neighborhood. 

Chodorlahomor, king of the Elamites, had subdued the kings 
of the Pentapolis, a beautiful and fertile district, thus called from 
the five cities it contained, the same that were afterwards destroyed 
by fire from heaven. He kept them under his control during twelve 
years ; but in the thirteenth year, they endeavored to shake off 
the yoke and to regain their independence. This fact supposes 
that Chodorlahomor had made a moderate use of his victory, since 
he had left the kings of those five cities in possession of their 
thrones, very probably on condition that they should, every year, 
pay him a certain tribute. 

Whatever their particular situation or discontent was, these 
princes revolted, formed a confederacy, and joined their forces 
against the king of the Elamites; whilst he, on his side, made 
great preparations to meet the emergency, and having secured 
the assistance of three other kings, his neighbors or allies, marched 
the following year against the insurgents. He gained a signal 
victory over the five allied monarchs, took and plundered their 
principal cities, carried off whatever was valuable in them, and 
led away their inhabitants captive. The sequel of this expedition 
is well known. Abraham, informed that Lot his nephew was 
among the prisoners, armed three hundred and eighteen of his 
servants, with whom he pursued the conquerors, and attacking 
them during the night, gave them so signal an overthrow, that he 
was enabled to recover all the booty and prisoners.* 

The Holy Scriptures mention scarcely any other wars and con- 
quests connected with this period. The profane historians, 
likewise, are generally silent on this point; for, the Assyrian 
* The whole narrative may be seen in Genesis ch. xiT. 



452 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VII. 

king Ninus, and Sesostris, king of Egypt, whom they represent 
as two mighty conquerors, probably lived at a much later period; 
and we know, moreover, but few particulars respecting their mili- 
tary expeditions. Still, it cannot be doubted that warfare was 
known in those countries at a very early period. 

From time immemorial, the public revenues of Egypt were 
divided into three portions; one of which was for the king 
and his household, another for the ministers of religion, and 
a third for the support of the army. Consequently, it was a custom 
or law among the early Egyptians, to maintain bodies of troops, 
nay, considerable forces for the defence of their country. 

These assertions, taken chiefly from Diodorus Siculus, are sup- 
ported by a few passages of the sacred writings. Moses, in the 
book of G-enesis, mentions a chief captain of the Egyptian army, 
and speaks of him as a man of great importance and authority; 
this refers to the times of Joseph, a son of Jacob and great-grand- 
son of Abraham. Some time after, under Moses himself, King 
Pharao, as soon as he heard of the departure of the Israelites from 
Egypt, pursued them with great numbers, both of infantry and 
cavalry.* The rapidity with which this numerous army was 
assembled, supposes an established system of war, and great atten- 
tion on the part of the Egyptian government always to have at 
hand many bodies of troops, well equipped, and ever ready to go 
wherever any emergency might require. These facts are suffi- 
cient to show that Egypt was one of the first countries in which the 
military art made some progress. 

It is, however, true that this kingdom was, generally speaking, 
far less conspicuous for its proficiency in war than for the arts of 
industry and peace. Except during the reign of Sesostris and a 
few other monarchs that were engaged in foreign wars, the Egyp- 
tians confined themselves to their internal affairs, and usually 
applying "but little to the cultivation of a warlike spirit, were 
much oftener conquered than conquerors. 

The prize of military skill and valor would indeed, among 
ancient nations, be more justly awarded to the Assyrians and 
Babylonians, and still more so to the Persians under their first sove- 
reigns, Cyrus, Cambyses, and Darius Hystaspes ; still all these 
were far surpassed in this respect by the Greeks, and subsequently 
by the Romans. Of what courage must not the Greeks have 
been possessed, not only to repel the innumerable armies, but 
even to shake and finally overthrow the formidable empire of 
Persia ! Above all, what must not have been the energy, con- 
stancy, and abilities of the Romans, to conquer successively the 
* Exodus, ch. xiv. 



MILITARY ART. 453 

mightiest states, the most warlike nations, and nearly every part 
of the civilized world! Hence, in the particulars we are -'in- 
to present about the military tactics of the ancients, most of the 
facts and illustrations that we shall adduce, will he taken from 
Roman andGrecian history; not, however, altogether excluding in- 
stances derived from the history of other nations, particularly the 
Carthaginians, whose power, for a time, was so great, and success 
in war, so glorious. 

On account of the multiplicity of objects to be mentioned in 
this matter, there will be a proportionate number of titles and 
sections. 

1 1. ENLISTING AND LEVYING OF TROOPS. 

Nothing certain can be said about the manner in which troops 
were levied, and armies formed during the primitive ao-es. It 
appears that all the citizens, except old men, women, and chil- 
dren, were then reputed able, and, in case of war, required to act 
as soldiers ; and this accounts for the numerous armies that were 
easily raised even in small countries, especially in Palestine. 

In subsequent ages, at least among civilized nations, a selection 
was made of the stoutest men, or such as appeared most fit for 
war, to compose an army. Finally, it was thought proper to 
designate out of the multitude of citizens, a certain number of 
individuals solely for the profession of arms; and the idea was 
suggested, probably more by experience than bare reflection, 
of maintaining at all times regular bodies of troops, in order to be 
constantly prepared for every danger and every sudden attack. 
This was the practice, among other instances, of the ancient 
Egyptians, and of the Persians, at least since the time of Cyrus 
and Darius. 

Among the Greeks, the Lacedaemonians were, properly speak- 
ing, nothing else than a nation of soldiers. They knew neither 
the arts nor sciences; they applied not to traffic; they did not so 
much as practise agriculture, but left their fields to be cultivated 
by slaves. All their laws, their education, their manners and 
customs, in a word, the whole of their national constitution and 
character, whatever may have been their legislator's intention, 
naturally and exclusively tended to make them a race of hardy 
warriors. And so, indeed, they were. Never did there appear iu 
all antiquity soldiers more inured to hardships, more undaunted, 
or better trained to military exercises, and to discipline, obedience, 
feelings of national honor an I unreserved devotedness to the glory 
and interests of their country, than those raised under the vigor- 
ous influence of Lycurgus's legislation. 



454 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VII. 

They were comprised in two classes : the Lacedaemonians pro- 
perly so called, who inhabited the country or district of Laconia, 
and the • Spartans, or citizens and inhabitants of Sparta, the 
capital of the whole state. The latter were considered the choicest 
men of the nation, and upon them alone were conferred the dig- 
nities, magistracies and preferments of their republic; in fact, 
nearly all of them could be placed with justice at the head of 
armies. Every one, however little versed in ancient history, 
knows what advantage the arrival of one Spartan officer, Xantip- 
pus, brought to the dispirited Carthaginians during the first Punic 
war ; and how quickly another, G-ylippus, delivered Syracuse from 
the imminent danger to which that city was exposed from the 
victorious army of the Athenians under Nicias (see pp. 175-176.) 
How wonderful, too, was the heroism and intrepedity of those 
three hundred Spartans who, having King Leonidas at their 
head, stopped for a long time the innumerable troops of the 
Persians in the defiles of Thermopylae, and did not lose their 
lives, till they had, with the assistance of a few allies, put twenty 
thousand of their opponents to the sword ! The total number of 
the citizens of Sparta amounted, at this period, to about eight 
thousand men. 

The age prescribed by the Spartan law for military service, 
extended from thirty to sixty years; men under or above that age 
were left for the defence of the city. Slaves never were enlisted 
among the troops except in cases of urgent necessity, and even 
then, they were but lightly armed. At the time of the Persian 
invasion, thirty-five thousand of them fought in the battle of 
Plataea, where they accompanied five thousand Spartan and five 
thousand Lacedaemonian warriors, thus making an aggregate 
amount of forty-five thousand men, nearly one half of the whole 
Grecian army. This probably was the highest number of native 
troops ever raised, and the greatest personal effort ever made by 
that nation. Their cavalry was not remarkable, their navy still 
less so, as it never had been the intention of Lycurgus that his 
countrymen should become powerful at sea ; hence it happened 
that, although the course of subsequent events obliged the Lace- 
daemonians to have vessels for the support of their national influ- 
ence, they never possessed any considerable fleet of their own, or 
at least they never had such a one without the help of their allies. 

Athens was a larger and more populous city than Sparta. In 
the time of Demetrius Phalereus, about three hundred years b. c, 
it reckoned seventy thousand inhabitants, among whom there 
were found twenty thousand citizens, ten thousand strangers, and 
forty thousand slaves. 



MILITARY ART. 455 

All the young Athenians, when they reached the age of eigh- 
teen years, inscribed their names in a public register, and pledged 
themselves by a solemn oath to serve and defend the republic on 
every occasion to the best of their power; this oath bound them 
to the military service, if required of them, till the age of sixty. 
Each one of the ten tribes that formed the body of the state, was 
obliged to furnish a certain number of soldiers, to serve either by 
land or sea. Under Pericles, and towards the end of his admi- 
nistration, the navy consisted of three hundred galleys, and the 
land troops of sixteen thousand men, besides an equal number 
destined to the defence of the city, the harbor, and the citadel. 
Such was, at the beginning of the Peloponnesian war, the amount 
of the Athenian forces, as recorded by Thucydides the historian, 
a contemporary, and himself an Athenian. 

These armies both of Athens and Sparta, if not very numerous, 
were at least full of courage, boldness, intrepidity, and almost 
invincible. They did not consist of wanderers or hirelings, 
strangers to feelings of national glory, little concerned about the 
success of the war, and often ready to sell their services to the 
highest bidder; but they were composed of the choicest men of 
these two warlike republics, soldiers inured to all the dangers of 
war, and the more determined to conquer or to die, as they fought 
their battles for whatever is naturally most dear to men in this 
life — liberty, the defence of their families, the glory of their 
country, etc. Among troops of this description, desertions from 
the army were seldom heard of, and, consequently, there was 
scarcely any punishment decreed against deserters, because patri- 
otism, honor, and family ties, were motives strong enough to bind 
soldiers like these invariably to the line of their duty. 

At Rome, the levies of troops were commonly performed by 
the consuls, and as the consuls were annually elected, so the en- 
listing of soldiers also took place every year. The age determined 
by law for the military service, extended from seventeen to fifty; 
but no one, during the flourishing times of the commonwealth, 
could be admitted as a soldier, who was not a Roman citizen and 
had not some property ; in order that both his free condition and 
the fortune he possessed, however inconsiderable this might be, 
should be a pledge of his brave and gallant behaviour. Once 
only, after the terrible losses inflicted by Annibal on the republic, 
necessity obliged the government to arm slaves; and even that 
single exception was accompanied with the extraordinary precau- 
tion of asking them individually, beforehand, whether they 
readily and spontaneously agreed to be enlisted as soldiers 
Sometimes, too, persons detained in prison for debts or some 



456 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VII. 

other cause were released from their imprisonment, and called 
upon to take a share in, and contribute to, the preservation and 
welfare of their country; but this very seldom occurred. 

The Roman troops, therefore, consisted only of citizens and 
members of the state. Most of them, before becoming soldiers, 
had lived in the country, to attend their farms and cultivate the 
ground with their own hands, and thus not only had acquired, by 
hard labor, an increase of bodily strength and a vigorous consti- 
tution, but were already used to that sober, toilsome and painful 
manner of life, which the military service requires. The other 
young Romans, who were born and sojourned in Rome itself, 
hardly received a more delicate education. The continual exer- 
cises of the Campus Martius, the races to be run on foot or horse- 
back, and the custom they had contracted of throwing themselves 
into the Tiber, in order to wipe off, by swimming, the dust and 
sweat which covered them, were assuredly an excellent appren- 
ticeship for war. Troops composed of such men, and well trained 
in military discipline and subordination, must have been un- 
daunted in battle. 

Before proceeding to the levy of soldiers, the consul in office 
notified the people of the day on which all the Romans able to 
bear arms, were to assemble. When that day came, the military 
tribunes or commanders of legions partitioned by lot the several 
tribes among themselves, and then selected, out of these tribes, 
such citizens as seemed to them the best fitted for war, not all 
at once, but successively and four by four, endeavoring to put 
together those who were equal or nearly equal in age, size and 
bodily strength. 

The enlisting went on in this manner, till four legions were 
completed. The levies being finished, the tribunes of every le- 
gion singled out a soldier to pronounce in their presence the so- 
lemn oath, by which he obliged himself to obey the commanders 
in all things to the best of his power, be ready to attend when- 
ever they ordered his appearance, and never leave the army 
without their consent. After he had ended, the whole legion, 
passing one by one, ratified this oath; every man crying out, as 
he passed: " Idem in me, I pledge myself to the same/' 

Next to the taking of the oath, the tribunes appointed a day 
and place for the troops to make their appearance. Here the 
youngest soldiers of a low condition in life, were set apart to 
serve as light-armed infantry under the name of Vclites, a name 
which denoted their swiftness and expedition; the next in age 
formed a body called the Hastati, from their principal weapon in 
ancient times, that is, a spear or hasta; the stoutest men composed 



MILITARY ART. 457 

another body, called Principcs; and the oldest, another, called 
Triarii. In battles, the first line was formed by the hattatii 
the second, by the principes; and the third, a kind of reserve, 
by the triarii, who, being the choicest, bravest and most experi- 
enced warriors of the whole army, were for this reason kept to 
fight in cases of extreme danger ; when, for instance, the first two 
lines had been broken and disordered. The light infantry or 
velites did not, in battles, form a separate body, but were parti- 
tioned and scattered among the lines, or in loose order placed 
before the army, to exert themselves as the occasion required. 

Two complete legions were generally allotted to each consul, 
but the number of soldiers who composed a legion, was not al- 
ways the same. In the beginning, it amounted to three thousand 
only; it was subsequently increased to four or five thousand, and 
even reached at a certain period upwards of six thousand. The 
ordinary number was four thousand and two hundred, with three 
hundred cavalry ; and so it stood in the time of Polybius. 

A consular army was, however, much more numerous than the 
preceding observation might lead the reader to suppose; for it 
comprised, besides the specified average of Roman soldiers, an 
equal amount of infantry furnished by their allies, and double 
their number of cavalry. Moreover, in times of great danger or 
wars of great importance, such, for instance, as the second Punic 
war and the great civil struggles which in the end convulsed the 
republic, the number of troops was considerably increased, being 
sometimes carried to ten or twelve, and sometimes to sixteen or 
twenty legions. 

Every thing being taken into consideration, the Roman infantry 
was the best in the world ; and next to it, similar praise is due to 
that of the Greeks, including the Macedonians. It was not ex- 
actly the same with the cavalry; as far as we can judge from the 
campaigns of Alexander the great, Annibal and others, the best 
seems to have been the Thessalian, Numidianand Parthian cavalry. 

As to the defensive and offensive arms of both infantry and 
cavalry among the ancients, those of the first class were the hel- 
met, the shiefd or buckler, and the cuirass or coat of mail; and 
those of the second were chiefly the sword, the lance or spear, 
the short pike or javelin, and the arrows. Some used slings, and 
some battle-axes, with terrible effect. Wooden towers placed on 
the backs of elephants, and chariots armed with scythes, were like- 
wise employed by several nations; but the use of these machines 
was neither universal nor lasting. As experience taught that, 
besides the great encumbrance they necessarily occasioned, they 
often proved unavailing, and sometimes were more prejudicial to 



458 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VII 

their own troops than to the enemy, they never obtained the ap- 
probation or confidence of the most warlike nations, and gradually 
fell into total disuse. 

I II. IMMEDIATE PREPARATIONS FOR THE OPENING OF A 
CAMPAIGN.— APPOINTMENT OF THE GENERAL.— DEPART- 
URE, MARCH, ENCAMPMENT AND DISCIPLINE OF THE ARMY. 

When all things were put in readiness for the beginning of an 
expedition, the armies set out from their capital city on the day 
specified; not however before they had implored the divine assist- 
ance, and earnestly endeavored, by sacrifices and supplications, 
to conciliate it to their cause. This was a very general custom 
among the ancient nations, never to embark in a war or any great 
enterprise without previous acts of religion. They were, with the 
only exception of the Jews, unfortunately mistaken about the 
objects of their worship, and foolishly asked of false, imaginary 
and senseless deities, what they ought to have asked only of the 
true God, the creator of heaven and earth ; yet, their conduct in 
this point plainly shows, to the great shame of modern infidelity, 
how strongly impressed they w r ere with the sense and belief of 
Divine Providence, and how fully convinced of this capital 
truth, that there is a Sovereign Being who regulates the destinies 
of empires as well as other events, that all things are subject to 
him, that he is the author of all good and nothing can be obtained 
without his assistance. 

This was the reason why Cambyses I, king of Persia and father 
of Cyrus the Great, thought that the best advice he could give to 
his son was, never to undertake any thing without having previ- 
ously consulted heaven and offered sacrifices. As we learn from 
Xenophon, Cyrus always followed this advice with scrupulous ex- 
actness; and Xenophon himself, a great general as well as phi- 
losopher, constantly did the same. 

All the heroes of Homer are represented by this great poet as 
deeply imbued with religious principles, and careful to have 
recourse to the divinity in all their wants and dangers. 

Alexander, at the beginning of his grand expedition against the 
Persians, did not leave Europe and reach Asia, till he had 
invoked the gods that were supposed to preside over both those 
countries. 

Annibal also, before commencing the second Punic war against 
the Romans, repaired to Cadiz, for the purpose of fulfilling a vow, 
and of imploring the protection of Hercules for the success of his 
enterprise. 



MILITARY ART. 459 

The Greeks were very punctual in acquitting themselves of 
what they thought to be their religious duty, and, above all, en- 
deavored to ascertain the will and secure the favor of their gods. 

No nation, however, was more faithful in the use of these prac- 
tices than the Romans, whether before their wars and durin«- 
their dangers, to obtain succor and relief, or after their victories 
and conquests, to express their feeliugs of gratitude. Instances 
of this may be found in almost every page of Roman history. 

Another common practice of the ancients in reference to war- 
fare, was that the same persons who were invested with the chief 
authority in the state, led the armies to the field and conducted 
their military expeditions. Besides the numberless instances re- 
corded in Scripture of Jewish kings being the only generals of 
their troops, we see the like among the Egyptians in the persons 
of Sesostris, Sesac, Nechao; among the Assyrians and Babyloni- 
ans, in Ninus, Nabuchodonosor, Neriglissor; among the Persians, 
in Cyrus, Cambyses, Darius Hystaspes, etc.; among the Spartans, 
in Leonidas, Agesilaus, Cleomenes; among the Macedonians, in 
Philip and Alexander the Great; among the Carthaginians, in 
Amilcar Barcasand Annibal; finally, among the Romans, in their 
sovereigns, and subsequently in their dictators and consuls. 

The Athenians had, in this respect, a custom quite peculiar to 
themselves, and not less curious than liable, by its nature, to evil 
consequences : an excessive love of liberty, and apprehension or 
a certain kind of jealousy against their greatest men, made them 
often change the commanders of their troops and elect new ones, 
even to the number of ten for one year. This gave occasion to 
Philip, the Macedonian king, to make this witty remark, that he 
exceedingly wondered at the good fortune of the Athenians and at 
their being able to find ten generals every year, whilst he, duriDg 
the whole of his life, had not been able to find more than one, 
that is, Parmenio. 

It is true, however, that the Athenian people were careful, in 
times of dangerous and important wars, to place no others than 
officers of truly great merit at the head of their troops. This, if 
not always, at least commonly happened; and hence, during an 
interval of two hundred years that elapsed between Miltiadea and 
Demetrius Phalereus, we find a very large number of eminent 
generals who led the armies of that republic, and who carried to 
the highest pitch the military glory of Athens, such as Miltiadea 
himself, Themistocles, Aristides, Cimon, Pericles, Chabrias, Pho- 
cion, etc. The Thebans, although very particular likewise about 
their rights and liberty, acted nearly in the same maimer, and the 
history of their bloody struggle against Sparta shows the two 



460 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VH 

greatest men that Thebes ever produced, Epaniinondas and Fe- 
lopidas, constantly at the head of their armies. Such, in fine, 
was also the conduct of the Romans during the long period of the 
commonwealth : to the excellent choice they generally made of 
their dictators or consuls, were they principally indebted for their 
astonishing success in war. 

To speak more particularly of the Roman commanders, and of 
the manner in which they discharged their official duties; they 
not only took in person the command of the troops, but set out 
together with them, and went on foot at the head of the legions. 
Since the far greater force of the Roman armies was infantry, it 
was deemed expedient and just that the general should be one of 
their number. This obliged him to set to all an example of cou- 
rage and patience in the greatest hardships ; and it must, indeed, 
have been wonderfully encouraging for the soldiers to see their 
dictator or consul doing first what he required of them, and 
cheerfully undergoing like themselves every fatigue, every inconve- 
nience, and every difficulty of the march, whether it came from 
the roads, the weather, the climate, or other circumstances. 

Hence, this practice lasted more than the republic itself, and 
continued to be observed under the empire, especially by the 
most warlike emperors, Trajan, Septimius Severus, Alexander 
Severus, etc. 

The march of the legions was about twenty miles a day ; a long 
route for an army, if we take notice that the Roman soldier, be- 
sides his helmet, shield, sword and javelin, all of which he looked 
upon as his own members, had also to carry his baggage, provi- 
sions for at least fifteen days, and a stake, the whole amounting 
to fifty or sixty pounds.* This might exceed belief, were it not 
otherwise known that the young Romans were previously trained 
by violent exercise to these painful and harassing marches. 

The stakes they had to carry in their march, were for the 
purpose of providing themselves with solid intrenchments during 
the night. This was one of the chief rules of their military dis- 
cipline, never to make a stay, though but for one night, either on 
their own or on a hostile territory, without being protected by a 
regular and fortified camp, in order to avoid, as it were, even the 
possibility of a surprise. For the same reason, they did not en- 
gage in a battle, until their intrenchments were completed. As 
the success of arms is uncertain, the Romans wished to secure a 
shelter for their troops in case of an overthrow; in fact, a fortified 
camp checked the progress of the enemy, received the fugitive 
soldiers, prevented a complete rout, and facilitated a second en* 
* See Veget. De re militari, lib. i, c. 19; and Cicer. Tuscul. ii, n. 37. 



MILITARY ART. 461 

gagement in which victory might reward their efforts; whereas, 
without such a place of safety, an army might be vanquished 
without resource and exposed to the danger of entire destruction. 
Rome knew this from sad experience : it had been for want of 
such precaution, that is, not having provided a good encampment 
for the troops, that the battle which they fought at Allia was so 
disastrous, and their defeat irreparable. 

From this epoch, the Romans were more exact than ever in 
forming their camp. They displayed in it so much art and regu- 
larity, that Pyrrhus and Philip III of Macedon, two very 
able commanders, expressed their admiration at it, and confessed 
that this was not the disposition of barbarians, such as the Greeks 
called all nations besides themselves. 

A truly admirable order reigned in the camps as well as marches 
of the Roman troops, and a strict discipline guarded them against 
licentiousness and theft. Their faults against either subordi- 
nation, or truth and justice, or any other part of their military 
duty, were punished, in proportion to the degree and nature of the 
guilt, with the bastinado, with degradation from a higher to a 
lower rank in the army, or some other marks of dishonor, and 
sometimes even with death. It is very remarkable that, wben 
the soldiers had failed in their obligations and showed a reluc- 
tance to perform them, or an uncommon effort was required of 
them to repel some great danger, they were called to a sense of 
their duty by the revival and even the increase of the former 
strictness of discipline. Scipio JGmilianus, having accepted the 
command of legionaries that had often been defeated by the Nu- 
mantines, condemned them to every kind of painful works and 
marches, for the mere purpose of using them to the hardships of 
war. Marius, the better to prepare his soldiers for a decisive 
action against the Teutones, began by causing them to dig immense 
ditches and turn the course of rivers; and Sylla, in his expedi- 
tion against Mithridates, imposed such labors on his troops, that 
they loudly asked for the combat as the end of their excessive fa- 
tigues. 

Even in the ordinary times or intervals of war, the soldiers 
were not suffered to remain idle. The new levies were made to 
practise running and leaping in their full armor, the throwing of 
the spear or javelin, the shooting of arrows, and other military 
exercises, twice a day; and the veterans, once. Everyone was 
required to keep his arms perfectly clean and polished. They 
engaged in fictitious combats, in which their officers and the gene- 
rals themselves often took a share. Finally, if no enemy was to 
be fought for a certain time, the soldiers were employed in works 

3'J* 



462 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VII, 

of great importance, with the view both of keeping them from idle, 
ness and of promoting the public welfare ; such were those extensive 
and magnificent roads, in various parts of the empire, which re- 
ceived, from their origin and authors, the name of vise militares. 

But nothing, perhaps, can give us as adequate an idea of what 
Roman soldiers were able to do, as what was really done by the 
soldiers of Cassar in Gaul. When he besieged the city of the 
Attuatici, he surrounded it with a rampart twelve feet high, and 
well protected all around by a large number of wooden forts, the 
whole circuit including fifteen miles; and all this, together with a 
variety of military engines, was finished with so wonderful an, 
expedition, that the enemy thought, as they themselves confessed, 
that the Romans were assisted in these attempts by some divine 
power.* In a previous expedition against the Helve tii, who in- 
tended to penetrate into Gaul, the same general, with the assist- 
ance of only one legion and some provincial soldiers, had raised a 
wall nineteen miles long and sixteen feet high, with a ditch for 
its defence, in order to prevent the passage of the enemy.f Yet, 
far more remarkable than either of these were his fortifications 
before Alesi%in Burgundy, described by himself at large in his 
seventh book (ch. 72-74). Such was their strength and magni- 
tude, that by their means he successfully protected his army of 
seventy thousand men, against eighty thousand in the town, and 
two hundred and forty thousand foot and eight thousand horse 
who had come to succor the besieged (see p. 390). 

After viewing these facts, to which many others of the same 
kind might be added, it will not appear astonishing that soldiers 
who could achieve such stupendous works, should become con- 
querors of the world. 



I III. BATTLES AND CAMPAIGNS. 

The ablest commanders always thought it their duty to settle 
beforehand the plan of their campaigns; to examine whether 
they ought to attack or stand upon the defensive; to acquire an 
exact knowledge of the country which was to be the theatre of 
the war; also, of the number and quality of the enemy's troops, 
and even, if possible, of their very designs, for the purpose of 
thwarting and defeating them by judicious measures; to foresee 
the principal incidents that might possibly occur, and to provide 
against them, as well as against manifest dangers, by every re- 
source that prudence and experience could suggest ; in a word, to 

* Caesar, De Bella Gall. b. ii, c. 30-31. flbidi b. i, c. 8. 



MILITARY ART. 463 

take call proper and practicable means to insure victory. This 
may be illustrated by various examples. 

From a public discourse delivered by Pericles on the subject 
of the Peloponnesian war, it is easy to perceive how much this 
great man excelled in foresight and military science. He regu- 
lated the manner of carrying on hostilities, not for one year only, 
but for the whole time of their duration, and he did so with ad- 
mirable prudence and sagacity, from the perfect knowledge he 
had of both the Athenian and Lacedaemonian forces. He pre- 
vailed on his countrymen not to hazard a battle against their nu- 
merous opponents, but rather to suffer the transient devastation 
of their lands in Attica, while their fleet would amply retaliate by 
plundering and laying waste all the coasts of Peloponnesus. He 
exhorted them above all, with the promise of certain victory, not 
to undertake foreign conquests; and to the neglect of the latter ad- 
vice, and the attempt to subjugate Sicily, may we attribute the 
entire failure and downfall of the Athenians. 

Never was there a bolder and wiser plan than that formed by 
Annibal to carry the war into Italy, and attack the Romans upon 
their own ground. With consummate skill he prepared every thing 
for the execution of his design ; the crossing of rivers, of moun- 
tains and of hostile countries, did not stop him : having foreseen 
the difficulties and obstacles he was to encounter, he surmounted 
them all ; and his victories were so rapid, so signal and so multi- 
plied, that Rome was for a time on the brink of ruin. 

The idea of Scipio to change the principal seat of the war by 
passing over to Africa, was not less ably concerted, and proved 
still more successful. Many specious reasons, however, opposed 
that new scheme, as it seemed much more natural for the Romans 
to defend their own country, than to invade distant territories; 
first to drive Annibal from Italy, and then to go forward and 
attack Carthage. Yet, the manner in which the expedition was 
conducted, and its speedy result, show T ed that Scipio had judged 
best, and not only was right in his expectations, but that his plan 
had been the effect of exquisite prudence. 

As the prosperous issue of a war or campaign is principally 
attached to success in battles, one of the chief cares of a general 
was to consider and see whether it was proper to give battle, or to 
decline an engagement; for either measure, if not resolved upon 
with judgment and caution, might prove very prejudicial. Mar- 
donius, the Persian commander, fell miserably at Plat.ea with 
his whole army of three hundred thousand men, for not having 
followed the advice of Artabazes, one of his best officers, who ex- 
horted him not to hazard an action against the Greeks. It was 



464 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VII. 

also in opposition to the prudent counsel of Memnon the Rho- 
dian, that the satraps of Darius Codomanus engaged, near the 
river Granicus, in a combat the result of which was so fatal to 
the interests of the Persian empire. In fine, the blind temerity 
of the consul Terentius Varro, who disregarded his colleague's 
remonstrances, brought upon the Romans the woful defeat of 
Cannae ; whereas the delay of a few days might, and probably 
would, have forced Annibal to leave Italy for want of provisions. 

On the contrary, Perseus, the Macedonian king, lost the oppor- 
tunity of defeating the Romans, by neglecting to attack their 
whole force briskly after the rout of their cavalry, which event 
had spread great confusion and dismay among them, and by not 
putting to profit the warlike ardor of his own troops, who were 
already encouraged by this partial success. 

The great Pompey himself committed a similar fault at Dyrra- 
chium, where, after forcing the lines of Julius Csesar, he might 
have entirely defeated him, if he had known how to pursue his 
advantage. In all great enterprises, especially in war, there are 
decisive moments upon which success chiefly depends; the para- 
mount point is to seize upon those favorable opportunities, which, 
once lost, will probably never return. 

When a combat was resolved upon, or otherwise unavoidable, the 
general endeavored to set his troops in battle array as advantage- 
ously as possible. There was and could be no uniform way of 
doing this, owing to the different circumstances of place, national 
customs, etc.; yet, as a general rule, the infantry was placed in the 
centre, and the cavalry on the wings; those who had elephants or 
chariots armed with scythes, usually placed them in front of the 
army to make the first attack, or at the extremity of the wings, to 
protect their flanks. Among several nations, the army was formed 
in one line, having from eight to twenty-four or thirty men in 
depth; but some others formed it in three lines, separated by 
proper intervals, the one behind the other; and this latter prac- 
tice was long and much in use among the Romans, for we find 
it employed at different periods by their best generals, for in- 
stance, Scipio Africanus in the battle of Zama, and Julius Caesar 
in the battle of Pharsalia. 

The better to understand this disposition of the Roman troops, 
it ought to be remembered that, when drawn up in battle array, 
the Uastati were placed in front of the army in dense and firm 
bodies; the principes behind them, but not quite so close; and 
after them the triarii so far from each other, that, in case of dan- 
ger and distress, they could receive both the principles and the 
hastati into their ranks. The velites or light infantry were not 



MILITARY ART. 4(35 

drawn up in this regular manner, but scattered up and down in 
front or at the wings of the army: on them devolved the duty of 
beginning the combat, which they did by throwing arrows, or by 
skirmishing in flying parties with the nearest troops of the enemy, 
If, by a very rare occurrence, they happened to prevail, they 
prosecuted the victory; but, upon a repulse, they fell back by the 
flanks or through the passages left open between the various corps 
of the legions, and rallied again behind the first line or in the 
rear. When they had thus retired, the hastati advanced against 
the enemy, and, in case they found themselves overpowered, re- 
tiring gradually towards the prindpes , they fell into the intervalsof 
their ranks, and, together with them, renewed the fight. But, if 
the princi-pes and the hastati thus joined were too weak to sustain 
the fury of the battle, they all fell back into the wider intervals 
of the triarii, and then all together being united into a firm mass, 
they made another and more impetuous effort; if this assault 
proved likewise ineffectual, which happened but seldom, the day 
was entirely lost for the infantry, there being no farther reserve. 

This manner of arraying the infantry among the Romans, was 
exactly like the order of trees which gardeners call the Quincunx. 
As the reason of that position of the trees is not merely for beauty 
and figure, but in order that every particular tree may have room 
to spread its roots and branches, without entangling and hindering 
the rest; so in this array of the Roman legions, the army was 
not only set out to the best advantage for order and regularity, 
but every particular soldier had free room to use his weapons, and 
to withdraw into the void spaces behind him, without occasioning 
any disturbance or confusion. 

The method of rallying thus three times has been considered 
almost the whole art and secret of the Roman discipline in battles. 
It was next to impossible, at least in the ordinary course of events, 
that victory should not follow this practice, if duly observed; for, 
in every engagement, the legionaries must have been thrice un- 
successful before they could be routed; and the enemy must have 
had the strength and resolution to overcome them in three suc- 
cessive encounters, for the decision of one battle. Now, it was 
certainly very difficult to obtain these repeated advantages over 
troops so brave and undaunted as the Romans generally were; 
whilst most other nations, and even the Greeks, drew up their 
whole army in one line, trusting themselves and their fortunes to 
the success of a single charge, which, if lost, was almost neces- 
sarily followed by entire defeat. 

There existed several other peculiarities in the ancient manner 
of engaging and of fighting battles. For instance, it was a 



466 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VU 

favorite custom with the soldiers of divers nations to utter loud 
cries or strike their bucklers with their swords, whilst advancing 
to attack the enemy; this they did probably in order to excite 
their courage, to nerve themselves against the fear of death, and 
to strike terror into the hearts of their foes. Sometimes the 
troops went coolly and slowly to the combat; at other times, when 
they were at no great distance from the enemy, they rushed on 
him with impetuosity. Such was the conduct of the Athenians 
at Marathon, and of Caesar's veterans at Pharsalia. 

The Roman legionaries were used, as soon as they came suffi- 
ciently near to their opponents, first to hurl their javelins against 
them, and immediately after to come, sword in hand, to close con- 
flict. The Macedonian phalanx, when brought to action, attacked 
at once, and in a compact body, with their levelled lances ; and 
if they were favored by the evenness of the ground, their shock 
was irresistible. During this close fighting, the greatest efforts 
were made, the greatest courage and energy were displayed, and 
the fortune of the day was commonly decided. 

When at length the enemy's ranks were broken and put to 
flight in some part of the field, the usual danger for the victorious 
party was their too eager pursuit of the fugitives, and their con- 
sequent neglect of the other portions of the army. This impru- 
dence occasioned the loss of many and very important battles, in 
which victory might otherwise have been easily secured; for 
instance, the battle of Cunaxa, lost by Cyrus the Younger; of 
Ipsus, by Antigonus and Demetrius Poliorcetes ; of Raphia, by 
Antiochus the Great; of Mantinea, by Machanidas, the Spartan 
tyrant, etc. Skilful leaders acted in a very different way, and 
were very careful, after defeating some portion of the enemy's 
troops, to turn their own victorious men against the centre, the 
flanks, or the rear of the hostile force still engaged in combat; 
and it was this difference of conduct that procured or facilitated 
the decisive victories of Thybarra, Marathon, Arbela, Cannae, 
Zama and Pharsalia, gained respectively by Cyrus, Miltiades, 
Alexander, Annibal, Scipio Africanus and Julius Caesar. 

Generals of consummate ability and experience, like those just 
mentioned, and some others equally renowned, carried still far- 
ther their precautions in battle, to ensure a happy result. After 
obtaining exact information of the various circumstances and 
objects which surrounded them, they endeavored to turn the wind, 
the sun, rivers, woods, mountains, the nature of the spot, the very 
temper and views of their foes, in a word every thing, to their 
own advantage. Thus acted, among several instances, Epami- 
nondas at Leuctra and Mantinea; Cyrus again at Thybarra; 



MILITARY ART. 467 

Scipio in the attack of the hostile camps of both Asdrubal and 
Scyphax; Annibal at Trebia, Thrasymenes, and above all at 
Cannae; and Julius Caesar at Pharsalia and Tapsus. 

There was a still greater display of military skill made by the 
same leaders in the conduct of their whole campaigns. Here 
they evinced an uncommon merit and talent in the command of 
armies, by the wisdom and maturity of their designs; the prepara- 
tion and choice of the best measures for their execution ; the 
sagacity with which they foresaw both the obstacles to be removed, 
and the means to be employed for their removal ; their attention 
to watch, and their care to improve every favorable opportunity; 
vigilance in the midst of prosperous events ; presence of mind in 
dangers ; constancy in disappointments and reverses ; energy after 
losses and defeats; in a word, so remarkable a degree of genius 
and activity, resolution and courage, as never to be dismayed by un- 
foreseen accidents or difficulties, and never to yield and fail 
except under absolutely insuperable obstacles. These combined 
qualities show the eminent general, and entitle some of the expe- 
ditions related in ancient history, to be pronounced master pieces 
of military science. (See Appendix, § v.) 

The following may be justly regarded as belonging to this 
class: the campaigns of Cyrus against the Babylonians and Lydi- 
ans; of Epaminondas against the Spartans; of Alexander against 
the Persians; of Annibal against the Romans; of Scipio against 
the Carthaginians; of Marius against the Teutones and Cimbri; 
of Sylla, Lucullus and Pompey against Mithridates ; and of 
Csesar in Gaul, Spain and Africa. 

It plainly follows from what has been hitherto said, that, 
whatever share the soldiers, officers and subordinate generals may 
have in the success of a war or campaign, it principally depends on 
the commander-in-chief, if, all things and circumstances being 
otherwise equal, he is sufficiently qualified for his high office. 
This, Timothy the Athenian, a son of the illustrious Conon and 
an illustrious general himself, expressed by saying, that he valued 
an army of stags led by a lion, more than an army of lions 
led by a stag. Numberless facts might be adduced to show the 
correctness of his assertion. Independently of the example of 
Xanthippus at Carthage and of Gylippus at Syracuse ; what ren- 
dered the Thebans for a long time victorious over all their ene- 
mies, but the talents of their great leader Epaminondas '( What 
raised the kingdom of Macedon from its obscurity to a very high 
degree of prosperity and power, but the abilities of onlj 
princes, Philip and his son Alexander? And, before thai time, 
who changed the almost unknown tribe of the Persians into one 



468 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VII. 

of the most celebrated nations of the world, and their small king- 
dom into a vast and powerful empire, but the incomparable skill 
and brilliant exploits of one hero, the great Cyrus ? 



I IV. ATTACK AND DEFENCE OF FORTIFIED PLACES. 

The ancients did not signalize themselves less in the art of 
attacking and defending fortified places than in the other parts of 
war ; nor were sieges, especially when directed against the capital 
cities of states and empires, less important than they are at pres- 
ent, nor are they consequently less deserving of the attentive and 
serious consideration of the student. 

The idea of fortifying cities and other important places must 
have naturally presented itself to the mind of nations engaged in 
war against one another. The annals of history testify that 
there existed such fortifications, consisting of ditches, walls, tow- 
ers, etc., if not in the primitive ages, at least at an early period 
among the Chanaanites, the Hebrews, the Assyrians, the Trojans, 
the Greeks and the Romans. Hence the manner of attacking 
and defending places of this description became one of the chief 
objects of military science. 

There were different methods of attempting the capture of a 
fortified city : 1. Blockade, to prevent any person from leaving the 
town; to hinder at the same time the introduction of convoys, and 
thus produce famine among the inhabitants; 2. A sudden and 
brisk attack, to carry the place at once by storm; and 3. The use 
of military engines, for the purpose of annoying the besieged with 
a shower of missiles, or breaking open the gates, if possible, or 
battering the walls and ramparts, so as to make a breach and 
facilitate an assault. These three methods, or two of them at 
least, were sometimes successively employed in the same siege ; 
when used separately, the first of the three was the safest, but 
most tedious, and could protract a siege to a considerable number 
of years; and hence the siege of Tyre by Nabuchodonosor II last- 
ed thirteen, and that of Azotum by Psammiticus, king of Egypt, 
twenty-nine years. The second method was the shortest, but 
most perilous ; and the third, as far as we can judge, was the 
most usually practised. 

When the assailants anticipated a long resistance, they forti- 
fied their own camp with a double line of intrenchments; the one, 
called contravallation, was intended to protect them against the 
sallies of the garrison, and the other, circumvallation, against any 
attack from exterior troops coming to the assistance of the be- 
sieged. This manner of conducting a siege was used particularly 



MILITARY ART. 4(39 

by the Lacedaemonians against Plateea, by the Athenians against 
Syracuse, by the Romans against the city of the Veientee, and 
by Julius Caesar against Alesia. 

The first difficulty for the besiegers was to fill up the ditches, and 
to approach without much danger the walls and ramparts of the 
place. The first object was accomplished by means of fascines, that 
is, small branches of trees bound up together in bundles and mixed 
with earth, which they threw in great quantities into the ditch. In 
order to effect the second, they employed not only trenches, oblique 
roads and passages under ground, but likewise a great variety of 
engines, such as those designated by the Latin authors under the 
names of vincce, muscull and testudines. Those called vinecs were 
composed of timber, posts and wicker hurdles, forming a roof 
under which the soldiers came safely to the walls of a tower, and 
then scaled them. The muscull and testudines were made of 
boards, and covered over with raw hides, to protect the assail- 
ants against the darts and blows of the besieged, while the former 
approached either the ditches, to fill them up, or the walls of the 
town, to undermine them with pick-axes and other instruments. 
There was moreover this difference between the testudines and v inet I , 
that the testudines were borne upon wheels; whilst the vinede, 
being comparatively light, were carried by the very soldiers 
whom they sheltered and protected. 

Besides these machines, purely artificial in their construction 
and frame, the Roman legionaries knew how to form a similar one 
and to the same effect, simply with their targets or shields. They 
raised these targets in such a manner, that they closed together 
above their heads, and so defended them from the missive weap- 
ons of the enemy. 

The engines hitherto described were primarily intended for the 
defence of the soldiers ; the offensive machines are yet to be men- 
tioned. Of these the most celebrated was the Aries, or hanging 
and battering ram, of which the historian Josephus gives the 
following description: "The ram," says he, "is a long beam 
like the mast of a large ship, strengthened at one end with a 
head of iron somewhat resembling that of a ram, whence it took 
its name. This is hung by the midst with ropes to another beam, 
that lies across a couple of strong posts, and being thus hanging 
and equally balanced, it is by a great number of men violently 
thrust forward and drawn backward, and so shakes the wall with 
its iron head; nor is there any tower or wall so thick and strong 
as to resist its force and repeated assaults."* 

Plutarch relates that Mark Antony, in the Parthian war, had 
* De Bcllo Judaico, b. iii, c. lo. 
■10 



470 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VIL 

provided a battering ram of eighty feet in length. Vitruvius 
mentions others of still larger size, and to this, no doubt, the 
strength of the engine was in a great measure owing. The rani 
was put in motion by a whole company of soldiers, and when 
these became wearied, they were replaced by another company; 
so that the ram played continually and without intermission, be- 
ing usually covered with a vinea to protect it from the attempts 
of the enemy. 

The most renowned among the other offensive engines were the 
Scorpio, the Catapulta and the Balista. The scorpio was em- 
ployed in throwing the smaller darts and arrows; the catapulta in 
throwing javelins and spears; and the balista in casting forth 
large stones and pieces of rock. These machines, especially the 
latter, sent their missiles with a violence which almost exceeds 
belief; still it cannot be reasonably questioned, as it is expressly 
related by very many ancient and judicious authors. Vegetius 
declares that the balista discharged its missive weapons with such 
rapidity and force, that they broke to pieces every thing in their 
way. Athenaeus mentions an engine of this kind no more than 
three feet long, which sent darts to the distance of five hundred 
paces ; and others, according to Vitruvius, cast forth to the dis- 
tance of a hundred and twenty-five paces, stones that weighed not 
less than three hundred pounds. Josephus relates that, at the 
siege of Jotapat, where he was the chief actor on the side of the 
Jews, a soldier standing near him had his head carried off by a 
stone that was thrown by a Roman engine three furlongs or 
eighteen hundred feet distant; whilst other stones, cast forth 
with the same or still greater violence, killed the combatants on 
the breach even behind their companions, broke the angles of 
towers, and destroyed the battlements.* 

From these facts it is easy to conclude that the military en- 
gines used by the ancients, in a great measure answered the same 
purpose as the musketry and artillery of modern nations. The 
number of those machines on particular occasions was in propor- 
tion to the power and resources of the belligerent parties, as also 
to the importance of the place to be conquered or defended. The 
Romans employed upwards of a hundred and sixty of them for 
the siege of Jotapat just mentioned; and they had a still greater 
number at the siege of Jerusalem which followed shortly after, 
that is, forty balistce and three hundred catapultce.if When Scipio 
took Carthago Nova in Spain, he found that city supplied with 
four hundred catapidtai and eighty-five balistce, all of which con- 
sequently fell into his power. Finally, the account given by 

* De Bell. Jad., b. iii, c. 16 and 17. f Id. c. 12 ; and b. v, c. 25. 



MILITARY ART. i 47 1 

historians of the siege of Rhodes under Demetrius, and of Cyzi- 
cum under Mithridates, gives us fully to understand that 
two great commanders employed an incredible number of ma- 
chines, though without much success. 

Finally, there was another sort of military engines (the move- 
able turrets), more formidable than all the rest, because, inde- 
pendently of their magnitude, they were at the same time defensive 
and offensive. These turrets were made of beams and thick 
boards joined together like the frame of a house, and running 
upon wheels. Their height was proportioned to their size and 
bulk, and sometimes surpassed that of the walls, ramparts and 
even towers of the city to be besieged, having many divisions or 
stories, between which there was a communication, and which 
carried soldiers with engines, ladders, bridges, and other neces- 
saries for a vigorous attack. The wheels of the machine were 
concealed within planks, to defend them from the enemy; and the 
men who had charge to drive them forward, stood behind in the 
most secure places; as to the soldiers within, they were protected 
by raw hides thrown over the turret, in such places as were most 
exposed. A city was in imminent danger of being taken, if such 
enormous machines could once succeed in approaching the wall. 

The besieged, on their side, were not idle nor slow in prevent- 
ing or counteracting the eifects of so many contrivances prepared 
for their destruction. They sometimes opposed chains, boards, 
hides or new walls to the strokes of the rams and hah'stse; at 
other times, and often with success, they endeavored to break or 
dismantle and disable them, by throwing on them beams and large 
stones from the top of their ramparts; or, by means of torches 
and combustible materials, to consume them by fire; or, finally, 
by digging the earth beneath through a passage opened under the 
wall, to make them sink by their own weight, and thus render 
them perfectly useless. They were careful, besides, to provide 
themselves with all sorts of weapons proportionate to those of 
the enemy, and to turn against the assailants the same instru- 
ments of terror and death to which they themselves were exposed. 
To the enemy's engines, they opposed engines; to mines, coun- 
termines; to assaults, vigorous sallies, and by these means often 
succeeded, either in protracting their defence for months and 
years, or in forcing the enemy altogether to abandon the siege. 

Sometimes the leader of the besieging army, perceiving that 
all his efforts and the ordinary contrivances of war proved una- 
vailing, had recourse to some extraordinary methodandstratftgem, 
such as the turning of a river, the opening of a subterraneous 
road under the walls into the city, etc. The first of those methods 



472 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VII 

was made use of by Cyrus for the conquest of Babylon, and 
the second by Camillus against the city of Veii. 

The various kinds of military engines that have been men- 
tioned, were invented at very different periods and in different 
places. Ezechiel, in his prophetic description of the siege and 
ruin of Jersualeni,* makes mention, not only of engines in gene- 
ral, but of battering rains in particular. The invention or first 
use of testudines and balistss among the Greeks was ascribed to 
Artemon of Clazomena, who followed Pericles to the siege of 
Samos in the year B. c. 441; but the most famous of this kind 
were contrived by Demetrius Poliorcetes for the attack of Rhodes, 
and by Archimedes for the defence of Syracuse against the Ro- 
mans (see pp. 245 and 295). 

Most of these inventions and machines are no longer of any 
use, having been totally superseded by the use of gunpowder and 
artillery. 

I V. CLOSE AND ORDINARY RESULTS OF WARS AMONG THE 
ANCIENTS. 

It only remains, for the completion of this subject, to say a 
few words of the manner in which the ancients concluded their 
wars and treated their vanquished enemies. 

The treaties of peace that put an end to their contests, were 
couched in few but very comprehensive words. What greater 
interests were ever to be settled between two nations than those 
of the Romans and Carthaginians at the close of the first Punic 
war, which had lasted nearly twenty-four years without intermis- 
sion, and inflicted immense losses on the two parties? Yet all 
their differences were adjusted in the few following lines, drawn 
up by the victorious consul Lutatius : " There will be, if the Roman 
people approve of it, peace between Rome and Carthage under these 
conditions. The Carthaginians shall evacuate Sicily. They shall 
not wage war against Hiero and the Syracusans, nor against their 
allies. They shall restore, without ransom, all the prisoners they 
have taken during the war. They shall pay to the Romans two 
thousand two hundred silver talents in the space of twenty 
years." Some of these conditions were modified by the Roman 
government, and made more severe; yet the terms remained sub- 
stantially the same. A similar conciseness may be perceived in 
the treaty which closed the long struggle between the Greeks and 
Persians; in that which followed the Peloponnesian war between 
the Greeks themselves; etc. 

*Ezoch. iv, 2; and xxi, 22. 



MILITARY ART. 473 

As to the manner in which the vanquished nations were treated 
by their conquerors; by none, generally speaking, were they bet- 
ter used than by the Persians. This is proved, not only from the 
example of the Jews, who constantly found in the Persian mon- 
archs protectors and friends rather than masters, but also by that 
of the Ionians, who, even after their revolt and complete overthrow 
under Darius Hystaspes, received from that prince a code of 
regulations the most equitable and the best calculated to revive 
their former prosperity. The same mildness was commonly dis- 
played towards private individuals: governors and generals who 
had revolted, were easily pardoned, provided they made their 
submission; and even Greeks, notwithstanding the injuries 
which they or their people had inflicted on Persia, were sure, 
when banished from their own country, to find an honorable asy- 
lum at the Persian court. Thus Demarates, one of the kings of 
Sparta, being driven from the throne by an intrigue, was in his 
misfortune kindly received by Darius ; and so was, likewise, the 
illustrious Athenian Themistocles by Artaxerxes Lougimanus. 
Hence the Persians, whom the Greeks called barbarians, were 
very often less barbarous and more generous than the Greeks 
themselves. 

The Athenians, however, as also the Romans, frequently de- 
served the praise of moderation and mildness towards their van- 
quished enemies; but frequently too, they treated them harshly, e. g. 
the Athenians on several occasions relative to their prisoners of 
war, and the Romans in their conduct towards the Carthaginians 
and the Numantines. This harshness and severity were carried 
to still greater lengths by the generality of other nations. No- 
thing indeed can be more painful, in the reading of ancient his- 
tory, than to behold the dreadful effects of the fury commonly 
exercised by the conquerors against the conquered, the destruction 
and desolation of the invaded countries, the plundering of cities, 
and the slaughter or captivity of their inhabitants; for such is 
the sad spectacle presented to our view almost every where in the 
history of the Assyrians, Babylonians, Lacedaemonians, Cartha- 
ginians and others. "Whence we cannot too highly value the 
benefit conferred by Christianity ujoon mankind in the introduc- 
tion of a much milder spirit among nations, even for the time 
during which they are engaged in war against one another;* an 

* This is what a famous French publicist, by no means suspectcil of 
too much partiality in behalf of Religion, lias expressly acknowledged 
in these words: " Si Ton voulait semettre devant lesycux lea maa 
des rois et des chefs Grecs et Romains, la destruction des peu] 
des villes par ces memes chefs, les ravages de Timur et de Gengiakaq <jui 

40* 



474 ANCIENT HISTORY. Tart VII. 

observation, this, perfectly applicable to the other occurrences of 
human life, and which, in fact, we will have more than once oc- 
casion to repeat in the following chapter. 

GENERAL MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF ANCIENT 
NATIONS. 

The manners and customs of the different nations form, with- 
out doubt, one of the most interesting, but at the same time, one 
of the most difficult parts of their history. In order to become suffi- 
ciently acquainted with them, it is necessary to observe the peculiar 
characteristics of the different ages, climes, countries and people ; 
the spirit and genius of the latter, and the ideas which they 
entertain on the general principles of morality, on religion, on 
the particular virtues and vices, and the various duties of society. 
It even requires, in some degree, to penetrate into the interior of 
families, and see the usages of private and domestic life, as well 
as of civil and social intercourse. Finally, there should be a 
sufficient knowledge of the influence which the arts have, in all 
ages, exercised over the conduct of men with regard to both the 
necessities and conveniences of life. Now, who does not perceive 
that it must be a very difficult task to become well informed on 
so many and so different objects, especially when they refer to 
remote antiquity? For this reason, we shall content ourselves 
with mentioning only the chief points that have been transmitted 
to us on the subject of ancient manners and customs. 

The manners and customs of a nation owe their origin to a 
multitude of causes, prevailing opinions, education, the degree of 
civilization, deficiency or improvement in the arts, political tran- 
quillity or disturbances, climate, the manner of providing food, 
etc. A series of unforeseen events and circumstances may also 
greatly influence the formation of a national spirit; and as there 
is an incredible variety of all such objects, causes and incidents, it 
is not at all surprising that there should be, or should have been, 
so great a diversity of customs and manners in different countries. 

On the other hand, it is equally certain that nations have, at all 
times, generally agreed on certain objects; for, besides the great 
principles of morality which Almighty God has imprinted in the 
hearts of all men, and without which no society could subsist, 
many usages regarding merely the ordinary course of life, were 
common to all ages and countries, such as certain insignia or ex- 
terior marks of distinction for persons invested with authority, 

out devaste* l'Asie, on trouverait que Ton doit au christianisme, et dans 
le gouvernement un certain droit politique, et dans la guerre un certain 
droit des gens, que la nature humaine ne saurait assez reconnaitre "' 
Montesquieu, Etprit des luis, liv. xxiv. c iii. 



MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 475 

the practice of solemn feasts and repasts on great occasions, and 
the custom of celebrating momentous eveuts, or the deeds of con- 
spicuous men, by songs and canticles. 

The earliest societies have been always celebrated in history for 
their simplicity of life and manners. In a certain sense, this 
plainness and simplicity cannot be denied, since we find it almost 
every where alluded to in the writings of Homer, Hesiod, and 
especially those of Moses, which are by far, even in a natural 
point of view, the most respectable and authentic record of early 
history. Still, with the exception of a few personages sincerely 
addicted to the practice of virtue, it would be an incorrect idea to 
imagine that the plain manners of the ancients supposes in them 
an exemption from vices, and an innocence in their morals propor- 
tionate to their apparent candor. Such an opinion would be en- 
tirely at variance with the numberless deeds of cruelty, revenge, 
pride, ambition and licentiousness, ascribed. to remote antiquity 
by both sacred and profane historians. It is easy to perceive 
that ignorance of almost all our discoveries, arts and means of 
industry, was the principal cause of that primitive state of things; 
there certainly was no great merit in the men and nations of those 
times, in abstaining from conveniences of which they had not the 
least idea. 

Thus, to speak of the most usual objects, it does not appear 
that, in the beginning of most societies formed immediately after 
the dispersion, there was any thing like our spoons, forks, plates, 
knives, glasses, tumblers, bottles, napkins, etc. The deficiency 
was probably supplied by earthen or wooden cups and vessels, for 
glasses and tumblers; by large leaves and bark of trees, for plates; 
by a sort of dagger or any sharp instrument, for knives; by little 
sticks, for spoons and forks; etc. The same deficiency must have 
prevailed in the garments, houses and furniture. It is true that 
things did not long remain in this destitute condition: better 
customs were gradually introduced; improvements took place in 
food, dress and lodgings; several useful instruments were inven- 
ted; yet, many other conveniences still remained unknown, with- 
out which, life would seem to us very unpleasant. For instance, 
the Greeks themselves, however proficient they became in the fine 
arts, were strangers to the use of stockings, linen, candles, sad- 
dles and stirrups, glass for windows, etc. Spectacles, watches and 
clocks, wind and water-mills, the mariner's compass, printing, etc., 
a fortiori were completely unknown to them. Most of these 
valuable discoveries have had a much later origin, as they only 
occurred in the medieval times of modern history, and in those 
very ages which afterwards have been so unjustly accused of 
complete ignorance and darkness. What should appear most re- 



476 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VII. 

markable, with regard, not only to the Greeks, but to the ancients 
at large, is that, being well acquainted with the manner of em- 
ploying cotton and flax, as well as wool, for the fabrication of 
their stuffs and tissues, they hardly knew the use of linen j and 
this was one of the chief reasons which obliged them to have so 
frequent recourse to baths, for the sake of cleanliness. 

These remarks should not, however, prevent us from admiring 
and praising what is truly deserving of praise in the simplicity 
of the ancients. Thus, notwithstanding the contrariety of mod- 
ern usages, it is peculiarly pleasing to behold, throughout the 
history of remote ages, princes, lords, and other conspicuous or 
wealthy persons, as also their sons and daughters, employing 
themselves in ordinary domestic occupations, fetching water, 
feeding their flocks, waiting on their guests, taking a personal 
share in the culinary department, etc. Examples of this plain 
way of acting are frequently found in the lives of the ancient 
patriarchs, as related by Moses (Gen. ch. 18, 24, 27, etc.), and 
of the chief personages described by Homer (in the Ilias and 
Odyss., passini). 

It is equally interesting to see how hospitality was practised 
in remote ages, first as far as regards the table and what consti- 
tuted a solemn repast. The holy patriarch Abraham, who was 
very rich and still more hospitable, certainly treated his guests in 
the best manner he could ; yet, when he received three heavenly 
messengers in human shape, he offered them neither a great va- 
riety of meats, nor food delicately dressed : but a calf, very tender 
and good, chosen by himself and boiled without any other prepa- 
ration, together with cakes, butter and milk, composed the whole 
repast.* The entertainments given and received by the heroes 
of Homer, were very similar ;f and this plainly shows that the 
splendor of repasts at this early period consisted more in the 
abundance of solid and substantial food than in dainties and va- 
riety, though, nevertheless, game and venison, as well as fruits 
and vegetables, were not absolutely unknown. 

We learn from the same sources, that it was customary to show 
one's regard for a person, by helping him to a larger portion than 
the other guests. In this manner the patriarch Joseph treated 
his youngest brother Benjamin, in the repast which he gave to 
all his brothers in Egypt; J in the same manner Agamemnon 
acted towards Ajax, and Eumaeus towards Ulysses. § This cus- 
tom may have arisen from their preconceived idea of the honor 
attached to great abundance of meat, or, as some believe, from the 
fact that the men of those times, being stouter in body and con- 

* Gen. xviii, 6-8. f llias, b. ix, and Odyss. b. xx. 

X Gen. ch. xliii. \ Ilias, b. vii, and Odyss. b. xiv. 



MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 477 

stitution, were in the same proportion greater eaters than we 
generally are. 

Yet it was the common practice in Palestine about the epoch 
of the patriarchs, in Egypt and among the Greeks at the time of 
the Trojan war, to take no more than two meals a day, one at 
noon or about noon, and another, more abundant and substantial, 
in the evening. The meats were served up already carved, and 
each guest received his separate portion. They ate sitting, and 
not lying on beds, as was subsequently the custom among the 
Persians and other oriental nations, and among the latter Greeks 
and Romans. In wine countries, at least in Greece, wine mixed 
with water was the usual beverage; other nations contented 
themselves with pure water, milk, beer, or hydromel, a decoction 
of water and honey. 

Poetry and music were much relished by the ancients, espe- 
cially by the Israelites and the Greeks, above all by the Athenians. 
From different facts of their history and legislation, it may also be 
concluded that, if not most, at least many persons both at Athens 
and in Judea knew how to read, though probably a much smaller 
number knew how to write. There were schools, both public 
and private, to train children in mental and bodily exercises, and 
higher schools for those who intended to become more proficient 
in°the science of religion, or in the other sciences and arts. Such 
were, the schools of the prophets among the Jews ; the philoso- 
phical schools of Greece ; and, under the Ptolemies, the astrono- 
mical school of Alexandria, which produced so many illustrious 
men, Hipparcus, Erastothenes, Sosigenes, etc. 

To resume the description of more common and more ancient 
practices : the custom of testifying internal grief for the death of 
parents and relatives, not only by tears and other natural signs, 
but also by exterior marks of merely human institution, existed 
from time immemorial. The book of Genesis speaks of Abraham 
and others as having performed the duties of mourning for their 
deceased wives, and relates at great length the solemn mourning 
that took place for Jacob among his sons and their Egyptian 
friends. The particular manner, length of time and other circum- 
stances which accompanied mourning, are little known, except 
the fact that there was some change in the dress, and that peculiar 
garments were appointed for widows. In the usual occurrences of 
life, the Hebrew women were extremely reserved, and willingly 
made use of veils to appear in public. 

Besides these rules of propriety, the inhabitants of Palestine 
and of the neighboring regions had many correct ideas on the po- 
liteness which men owe to each other, and the observance of 
which strengthens the bonds and constitutes the charm of society. 



478 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VII. 

Their manner of salutation was quite respectful, since they bowed 
profoundly to those whom they wished to honor. A special 
courtesy was shown to foreigners and travellers. They were 
loaded with kindnesses, and not only received what they needed, 
but had the use of every thing that- might contribute to their 
comfort. As they wore only sandals, which left the foot perfectly 
exposed to dust and mud, the first thing provided for them when 
they came to a house, was clear water to wash their feet. We 
read in the Scripture that the patriarchs never failed to comply 
with this duty towards their guests; and another act of politeness 
practised in their regard, was to accompany them a certain dis- 
tance when they resumed their journey. 

The urbanity of the Greeks during their heroic times was much 
of the same description; it consisted in saluting each other by 
name, with a gesticulation of the right hand accompanied by some 
obliging words. One of their chief rules of civility, when they 
extended hospitality to strangers, was to wait for some days before 
asking them the object and motives of their visit. 

The custom of making presents, as a token of gratitude, or 
through pure liberality, was already very much in use; these 
presents were sometimes quite valuable both as to matter and 
form, such as rich and splendid robes and garments, golden 
bracelets or chains and ear-rings, basins and other vessels, likewise 
of gold or silver. The fabrication and use of these objects prove 
moreover that, notwithstanding the general simplicity of early 
ages, some arts tending to mere decoration and ornament had 
already much advanced, and there began to reign a certain pomp 
and luxury among the Asiatic nations. 

The propensity of these nations to splendor and show seemed 
continually to increase, and after having made a considerable 
display among the Egyptians, the Phenicians and the other in- 
habitants of Palestine, reached its highest degree in the Assyrian, 
Babylonian and Persian empires. It is truly astonishing how 
far the sovereigns of these vast monarchies carried magnificence 
and pomp in their palaces, furniture, dress and retinue, and to 
what degree they amassed gold and silver. Unfortunately, those 
very kingdoms were at the same time a prey to frightful vices, such 
as dissoluteness and effeminacy, the chief causes of their decline 
and the forerunners of their impending ruin, to be, as it were, 
a terrible warning to all future generations, that not in wealth 
and luxury do the real greatness and happiness of nations 
consist, but in the practice of public and private virtues. 

The same remarks are applicable, in a great measure, to the 
Greeks and Romans for the time when they themselves, by their vic- 
tories and conquests, had attained the summit of worldly prosperity. 



MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 479 

There must be admitted, it is true, some honorable exceptions : 
1. In favor of the Athenians, who, notwithstanding the disorders and 
vices of many among them, yet, as a nation, always respected the 
laws of decency and evinced a special horror for the vice of intem- 
perance ; and, 2. Of several great personages of Rome, e. g. Scipio 
iEmilianus, Metellus Numidicus and Cato Uticensis, all of whom, 
not to mention others less celebrated, evinced in their general con- 
duct a morality worthy of the former and flourishing times of the 
republic. But how few, comparatively speaking, there were of this 
description, and how easily they disappear from the sight of the 
observer in the universal confusion and depravity of their age ! 

What, for instance, do the records of those later ages tell 
us about the very nations previously the most renowned for 
their moral qualities and habits? The austere life of the 
Spartans had yielded to avarice and sensuality; the indus- 
trious activity of the Athenians was changed into luxury, curi- 
osity and indolence ; the masculine virtues of sobriety, frugality, 
honorable poverty and laborious life, practised for a long time by 
the Romans, were now superseded by the contrary vices. Si- 
multaneously with this decay of morals among the latter, the fer- 
tile fields of Italy were converted into flower-gardens, groves, places 
for sumptuous baths or parks for hunting, to gratify the fanciful 
taste of wealthy individuals; and the number and duration of 
their repasts, the abundance, variety, delicacy and seasoning of 
their meats, were carried to an inconceivable degree of refinement. 

To this luxury of the table, the Romans, in the latter days of 
their commonwealth, joined an inordinate relish for shows, games 
and theatrical representations. To satisfy their inclination in 
this respect, they did not confine themselves to dramatical exhi- 
bitions, but required the costly sports of the amphitheatre or 
circus, in which, at first, animals of a chosen kind, especially 
lions and elephants, were made to fight against one another, after- 
wards men against beasts, and finally men against other men 
under the name of gladiators. These last, in their inhuman 
combats, became the favorite spectacle of the Romans, and, 
sometimes to the number of more than a hundred or a thousand, 
shed the blood of one another for the purpose of solemnizing the 
funerals of some famous personage, or for the mere diversion of 
barbarous spectators. 

Add to this the common practice of bribery, venality of offices, 
extortion, oppression of subjects, allies and conquered provinces; 
the cruel treatment inflicted on children, slaves and insolvent 
debtors; the frequency and facility of divorce; the frightful licen- 
tiousness that pervaded not only the Roman people, but the 
generality of heathen nations; the adulteries and incests, plots. 



480 ANCIENT HISTORY. Part VII. 

treasons, murders, parricides or fratricides, which so often oc- 
curred during those perverse ages, especially in great cities and 
in the courts of sovereigns; the obscene or inhuman rites by 
which the people worshipped their false deities; in a word, a de- 
luge of vices and crimes that covered, together with idolatry, 
nearly the whole face of the world : such was the abyss of evils 
in which mankind was then plunged, and from which there 
was no hope of recovery by human means. 

It required indeed the special interference of God to check so 
dismal, so extensive and so deeply rooted an evil. It required a 
divine light and doctrine to dispel the darkness and errors of 
idolatry; and divine precepts, heavenly examples and supernatu- 
ral assistance, to purge the world from the crimes that every 
where prevailed : and this was effected by Christ, the Incarnate 
Son of God; by his life, death and resurrection, and by the 
preaching of his Gospel. Not that all disorders have really dis- 
appeared; because, unfortunately, there always have been and 
always will be men disposed to shut their eyes against the 
light, and to reject the divine ordinances in all or in part, 
in theory or in practice. Yet, how great, how striking for an 
attentive observer, is the difference between the times of heathen- 
ism and those of Christianity. How many unjust and inhuman 
laws discarded ! How much ignorance about moral and religious 
principles, dispelled ! How many crimes, very common before, 
no longer or scarcely heard of! How many barbarous and in- 
famous rites destroyed ! How many cruel and atrocious cus- 
toms abolished ! In fine, how many pure and sublime virtues 
every where substituted in the place of disorder and vice, or 
deeds of heroic and heavenly perfection, in the place of merely 
human and moral decorum ! 

Here above all must appear the complete dissimilarity of the 
two grand epochs of mankind. Whilst ancient history shows 
only here and there a few individuals practising moderation, 
clemency, liberality, disinterestedness, fortitude and the like, 
and that, often, from very imperfect motives : modern history 
shows the religion of Christ, not only establishing pure and genu- 
ine virtue wherever it found men disposed to receive it, not only 
causing innumerable persons to lead a life entirely and constantly 
virtuous; but producing models of perfection and sanctity, of 
voluntary poverty, continency, and self-denial for God and the 
neighbor's sake, in all ranks and employments, in all periods and 
circumstances of life, finally in all countries and all ages, as well 
those of comparative ignorance, as those of knowledge and eru- 
dition. This was a spectacle totally unknown to the pagan world, 
and reserved exclusively to the times of the Christian era. 



APPENDIX 



This Appendix will contain six Illustrations, or confirmatory proofs 
of the views taken by the author of this History concerning some 
important points. 

The first of these illustrations, mostly taken from Bossuet's Discourse 
on Universal History, has reference to the succession of ancient em- 
pires, and is intended to vindicate the order and manner in which it 
has been set forth (pp. 89-100), contrary indeed to the opinion of 
Justin and Diodorus Siculus, but quite in accordance both with Holy 
Writ and with the most judicious authors of antiquity. This passage 
of Bossuet is well deserving an attentive perusal, and will be found 
replete with sound information and criticism. 

2. Another, though much shorter, extract from the same eminent 
writer, will throw much light on the opinion expressed in page 143 
of this volume (text and note), concerning the precise time in which 
King Xerxes ceased, and Artaxerxes Longimanus began, to reign in 
Persia. This is a momentous and highly useful question towards 
ascertaining the commencement of the 70 weeks spoken of by the 
Prophet Daniel, that were to elapse until the coming of the Messiah. 

3. The third addition is intended to explain the reasons why Anni- 
bal, whose plan of attack had been so successful at Cannse, did not 
adopt and follow the same in the battle of Zama, and to vindicate this 
great general's conduct on the latter occasion. 

4. The victory of Marius over the Teutones near Aquee Sextiae (p. 
345), is justly considered one of the most signal events of ancient 
Rome. It could have been related at much greater length and with 
many important details ; but, as it was neither proper, nor consistent 
with our general plan, to introduce so many particulars about one 
special fact, a fourth illustration, entirely taken from the interesting 
narrative of Plutarch, will now make up for this apparent deficiency. 

5. Lest the judgment we have passed in different places (e. g. pp. 
242, 301, 382, 467, etc.,) on the greatest among ancient conquerors 
should to any one appear ill-founded, we will here adduce, as an excel- 
lent proof of its accuracy, what Napoleon Bonaparte, in one of his o in- 
versations at St. Helena, said of Alexander, Julius Caesar and Annibal, 
and of the respective claims of those famous men to the admiration 
of posterity. 

6. The concluding part of this Appendix will be a summary view 
of the state of literature among the ancients, especially the Greeks 
and Romans. 481 

41 



482 APPENDIX. 



§1. SUCCESSION OF ANCIENT EMPIEES. 

The reader may have noticed, that our narrative of Cyrus' life and 
actions is very different from what Justin the historian says of that 
prince ; that this author does not mention the second Assyrian empire, 
nor those famous kings of Assyria and Babylon so much spoken of in 
Bible history ; and, in fine, that our statement throughout does not 
well agree with what the same author relates of the three first empires, 
that is the empire of the Assyrians, which became extinct in the per- 
son and by the death of Sardanapalus ; the monarchy of the Medes, 
whose last sovereign was Cyaxares II, the uncle of Cyrus ; and the 
Persian empire, founded by the same Cyrus and destroyed by Alexan- 
der the Great. 

To Justin may be added Diodorus Siculus, and several other Grecian 
and Latin authors whose writings are still extant, who differ in their 
narrative from what has been stated and related in this work, as being 
more consonant to Sacred History. 

Should any one be surprised of this difference, he ought to take notice 
that profane historians seldom agree perfectly among themselves. The 
Greeks, for instance, have left us several contradictory accounts of the 
actions of Cyrus. Herodotus mentions three of them, besides the one 
which he himself has chosen to follow ;f nor does he say that this one 
was founded on the testimony of more ancient or more respectable 
authors, than the others which he rejects. He also remarks that the 
death of Cyrus was variously related,^ and that he has embraced on this 
point the opinion which to him seemed the more likely, without sup- 
porting it by any further proof. Xenophon, who served in the Persian 
army of Cyrus the younger, the brother of Artaxerxes Mnemon, had 
far better means of investigating the life and death of the former 
Cyrus in the annals and tradition of the Persians ; and no one, ever so 
little versed in the knowledge of antiquity, will hesitate to prefer, after 
the example of St. Jerom,§ Xenophon, so wise a philosopher and so 
skilful a general, to Ctesias, a fabulous author whom most of the 
Grecian writers have copied, as Justin and the Latins have copied 
the Greeks ; and even to Herodotus himself, however judicious other- 
wise the latter may be. The reason of this preference is because the 
history of Xenophon, not only is better connected and more rational 
in itself, but it enjoys, besides, the advantage of being more consonant 
to Holy Scripture, which, independently of its divine inspiration, de- 
serves to be preferred to all Grecian histories, from the mere fact of its 
antiquity and the intimate connexion of the affairs of the Jewish 
people with those of the other Oriental nations. 

As to the first three monarchies, what most of the Grecian authors 
have written of them, was looked upon as suspicious by the Avisest 
men of Greece themselves. Plato shows in general terms, and under 
the name of Egyptian priests, that the Greeks were deeply ignorant of 

* Justin, Hist. b. i, c. 3-6. + Herod, b. i, ch. 95. 

t Ibid. ch. 214. § St. Hieron. in Daniel. 



AITENDIX. 483 

historical antiquities f* and Aristotle reckons among story-tellers such 
as had written on Assyrian history .f 

The reason of their mistakes is, because Grecian historians were 
comparatively recent, and being desirous to please their countryman, 
always so fond of curious things, by the recital of the events and revo- 
lutions of old, they made up their narrative of confused materials, 
which they were satisfied to set in a pleasing order, without much 
minding their accuracy and truth. 

And, indeed, the order of succession which they ascribe to the first 
empires, is manifestly incorrect. For, after relating the fall of the 
Assyrians under Sardanapalus, they represent the Medes, and then 
the Persians, successively and separately possessing the empire of 
Asia; as if the Medes had inherited the whole power of the As- 
svrians, and the Persians had established themselves by expelling the 
Medes. 

But it appears certain, on the contrary, that when Arbaces roused 
the Medes against Sardanapalus, he did nothing but procure their free- 
dom, without at all subjecting the empire of the Assyrians to their 
power. Herodotus distinguishes the time when they became free, from 
that epoch when King Dejoces began to reign over them 5 % and the 
interval between these two epochs, according to the ablest chronolo- 
gists, must have been of nearly forty years. It is moreover certain, 
from the concurring testimony of this great historian and of Xenc- 
phon, § not to mention here several others, that at the very time during 
which, we are told, the Medes possessed the empire of Asia, there 
were in Assyria very powerful kings, whose monarchy Cyrus over- 
threw bv the conquest of Babylon. 

If then most Grecian historians, as well as the Latins who have fol- 
lowed them, do not mention those Babylonian kings; if they give no 
place to that mighty kingdom among the empires whose succession 
they pretend to relate ; finally, if we find hardly any thing in then- 
narrative concerning those famous monarchs, Theglathphalasar, Salma- 
nasar, Sennacherib, Nabuchodonosor, so much renowned in the Bible 
and in Oriental histories : this omission ought to be attributed to 
nothing else than either the ignorance of the Greeks, more eloquent in 
their descriptions than exact in their researches, or to the loss we must 
have suffered of their best historical writings. 

Indeed, Herodotus had promised to write a separate history of the 
Assyrians ; || a history, however, which is not extant, whether it was 
lost, or whether he had no time to compose it. At all events, we may 
rest assured that we woukl have found in it the sovereigns of the 
second Assyrian empire, since Sennacherib, who wae one of them, is 
mentioned in another book of that great historian, as king of the As- 
svrians and Arabs.^[ , 

Strabo, who lived about the time of Augustus, relates in substance — 
what Megasthenes, an author much more ancient and nearly contem- 

* Plato in Tim. t Aristot. Polit. $ Herod, b. i, ch. 96. 

§ Herod, ib. Xenoph. Cyrop. b. 5, 6, etc. || Herod, b. i, ch. 106 and 184. 

\ Herod, iib., ch. 141. ** Strab. b.xv, circa tmt. 



484 APPENDIX. 

porary with Alexander the Great, had written of the great conquests 
achieved by Nabuchodonosor, king of the Chaldeans, namely: that 
this prince went through Europe as far as into Spain, and carried his 
victorious arms even to the pillars of Hercules. iElian speaks of Til- 
gamus as king of Assyria, that is to say, beyond any doubt, the same 
who is called Theglath in Scripture ; and we have in Ptolemy an enu- 
meration of the sovereigns that ruled over the ancient empires, among 
whom is found a long series of Assyrian monarchs unknown to the 
Greeks, and which it is easy to reconcile with Sacred History. 

It would take too long to relate what we find written on the same 
subject in the Syrian annals, in Berosus, in Abydenus and in Nicholas 
Damascenus. Eusebius of Caesareaf and JosephusJ have preserved 
for us valuable fragments of all these authors, and of a great many 
others besides, whose writings were then entire, and whose testimony 
confirms what the Holy Scripture relates both of the antiquities of 
Oriental nations at large, and of Assyrian history in particular. 

As to the monarchy of the Medes, which most profane historians 
now extant reckon as the second in the series of great empires and 
apart from that of the Persians, it is certain that Sacred History always 
joins them together, and, besides the authority of Holy "Writ, the very 
order of facts plainly shows that the latter is the only true statement. 

Before Cyrus, the Medes, although conspicuous and powerful, were 
eclipsed by the superior greatness of the Babylonian kings. But Cyrus 
having, through the combined forces of the Medes and Persians, sub- 
dued the kingdom of Babylon, it was but natural that the vast empire 
of which he was the founder and second sovereign, should take its 
name from that of the two allied nations. So it really happened ; and 
hence the monarchy of the Medes and the monarchy of the Persians 
were one and the same empire, although the glory of Cyrus caused 
the name of the Persians to prevail in history. 

It may, moreover, be said, that before the Babylonian war, the 
Medes having extended their conquests towards the West in the direc- 
tion of the Grecian colonies of Asia Minor, became for that reason 
celebrated among the Greeks, who therefore ascribed to them the em- 
pire of Upper Asia, because they were unacquainted with the other 
monarchs of the East. It thus happened that the kings of Ninive and 
Babylon, much more powerful than those of Media, yet much less 
known to Greece, have been almost entirely forgotten in those histories 
written by Grecian authors which are still extant, and the possession 
of superior power during all the time that elapsed between Sardanapa- 
lus and Cyrus, has been, through mistake, attributed to the Medes alone. 

There is no need, therefore, to take much trouble in endeavoring to 
reconcile on this point profane with Sacred History. For, as to what 
regards the first empire of Assyria, the Scripture speaks very little of 
it, and mentions neither Ninus, its founder, nor any of his successors, 
except Phul, because their history had nothing common with the his- 



*JE\ian, Hist. anim. b. xii, ch. 21. f Euseb. Prap. Evang. b. ix. 
i Joseph. Anliq. b. ix, last ch.— x, ch. 11; aud Conlr. App. b. i. 



APPENDIX. 485 

tory of the chosen people of God. As to the second Assyrian empire, 
most Greeks were either entirely ignorant of it, or having known it but 
imperfectly, confounded it with the first. 

Whenever, then, any one will oppose to our statement the testimony 
of those Grecian authors who relate in a different manner the sin ces- 
sion of the three first monarchies, and suppose that the first empire of 
the Assyrians was succeeded by that of the Medes, and not by the 
second Assyrian empire, which the Scripture shows to have been so 
powerful ; we have simply to answer that those writers did not know 
this part of history, and that they are at variance, not only with Holy 
Scripture, but also with the most judicious and best informed authors 
of their nation, such as Xenophon, Herodotus, Ptolemy, and others. 

Finally, the difficulty must be forever removed by this one plain 
consideration, that the Sacred Writers, having been nearer both in time 
and place to the great Eastern kingdoms, and moreover describing the 
history of a nation (the Jewish people) whose affairs were so closely 
interwoven with the transactions of these mighty empires, are of suf- 
ficient weight, even independently of divine inspiration, to silence those 
Greek and Latin authors who have given a different narrative. • 

This conclusion is the more exact, as the testimony of the latter, by 
not mentioning the second Assyrian empire, hardly amounts to any 
thing more than a mere omission or negative proof. Now, it is univer- 
sally as well as justly agreed, that negative proofs are of no weight 
and no avail whatsoever, when they clash, concerning the same facts, 
with explicit evidences to the contrary. 



§11. CLOSE OF XEEXES' AND BEGINNING OF ARTA- 
XERXES LONGIMANUS' REIGN.— Pp. 143-144. 

Xerxes was killed by Artabanus, the commander of his guards, 
whether this traitor intended to occupy his master's throne, or whether 
he feared for himself the severity of a prince whose cruel orders he bad 
not executed.f The son of Xerxes, Artaxerxes Longivnanus, com- 
menced his reign, and shortly after, received a letter from Themistocles, 
who, being outlawed by his fellow-citizens, offered him his services 
against the Greeks (B. C., 473.) He knew how to set a proper valuo 
on the merits of so conspicuous a man, and, notwithstanding the jeal- 
ousy of the Persian satraps, raised him to a high rank and fortune. 
The same magnanimous king protected the Jewish people, and in the 
20th year of his reign, a year rendered most remarkable from the se- 
quel, he authorized Nehemias to build up Jerusalem again with its 
walls. % This edict of Artaxerxes differed from another edict is*ned by 
Cyrus in behalf of the same Jews,§ in as much as the latter related to 
the temple, and the former to the city of Jerusalem. What is most 
deserving of notice, is that the commission which was given by Arta- 

* Boss::et, Disconrs sur I'histoirc unit., Part i, epoch 7. 

+ Ari<t. Polit. v, 10. ill Esdr. ch. 2. § 1 Esdr. i, 1 -3. 

41* 



486 APPENDIX. 

xerxes, and had been foretold by the prophet Daniel, gives us the pre- 
cise beginning of the seventy weeks, or four hundred and ninety years 
mentioned by the same prophet as being to elapse until the death of 
Christ for the redemption of mankind.* 

This important date rests upon a solid foundation. The banish- 
ment of Themistocles is stated by the chronicle of Eusebius to have 
taken place in the 4th year of the 76th Olympiad, which is the same 
as the year of Eome 280 (B. C. 473.) Other chronologists believe it 
to have happened a little later ; but the difference is small, and various 
reasons show the accuracy of the date set forth by Eusebius. In effect, 
Thucydides, a grave and very exact historian, who was a fellow-citizen 
and nearly coeval to Themistocles, asserts that the latter wrote his let- 
ter in the beginning of the reign of Artaxerxes. f Cornelius Nepos, an 
ancient and a judicious as well as elegant writer, looks upon this date 
as certain, on account of the authority of Thucydides : $ an inference 
this, the more sound and reasonable, as another author, still more 
ancient than Thucydides himself, agrees with him on the subject. That 
author is Charo of Lampsacus, cited by Plutarch ; § and Plutarch adds, 
moreover, that the annals, namely, the Persian annals, agree with 
these two writers. He, it is true, entertains some doubt about their 
perfect accuracy ; yet, he assigns no particular reasons for it, and the 
historians who think the reign of Artaxerxes to have begun nine or 
eight years later, are neither so ancient nor so weighty as those just 
mentioned. It seems therefore indubitable that its beginning must 
be referred to the end of the 76th Olympiad, or nearly the year 280th 
of Eome: whence the 20th year of that prince must have occurred 
about the end of the 281st Olympiad, or the year 300th of Eome (B. 
C. 453;) the more so, as the others who postpone the beginning of 
Artaxerxes' reign, are obliged, in order to reconcile ancient authors, to 
admit that his father had at least associated him with himself in the 
government, at the time when Themistocles wrote his letter. So that, 
whatever view may be taken of the matter, the date we have assigned 
appears indubitable. || 

This being settled, nothing is easier than to complete the calcula- 
tion. From the 20th of Artaxerxes, or the year B. C. 453, there were 
just 69 weeks of years, that is 483 years, to the baptism of our Lord, 
when he first began to preach, and to execute the office of the Messiah. 
Then he preached for 3 years and a half, or half a week, and died 
upon a cross in the middle of the 70th week ; which was exactly the 
time foretold by the Prophet Daniel. 

* Dan. ix, 25. t Thucyd. b. i. 

J Corn. Nep. in Them. ch. ix, § Plut. in Them. 

|| Bossuet, Op. Cit., P. i, epoch viii. 



APPENDIX. 487 

§111. CONDUCT OF ANNIBAL IN THE BATTLE OF ZAMA 
Pp. 299-300. 

When the momentous conflict which was to decide the fate of Rome 
and Carthage, could be no longer postponed, Annibal prepared himself 
for it m the following manner. He formed his army in three lines wit]! 
eighty elephants in front, with which he proposed to begin the action 
His first line consisted of mercenary troops, Gauls, Ligurians and 
Spaniards ; the second was composed of Africans and natives of Car- 
thage, and in a third line he placed the veterans who had shared with 
himself all the dangers and honors of the Italian war. The Roman 
legionaries were drawn forth according to their usual divisions of Has- 
tati, Principe* and Triarii (see p. 464;) and finally, in both armies, 
the cavalry was placed at the two wings, the hostile squadrons exactly 
facing each other. 

Here it may have easily occurred to the mind of the attentive reader, 
to ask why Annibal did not make the same array of his forces and 
adopt the same plan of attack at Zama, winch he had so success! ally 
employed at Cannae (see p. 290.) Before giving a direct answer to 
this question, every one should certainly be inclined to pause, and con- 
jecture within himself that so able and experienced a general as Anni- 
bal was, must have had excellent reasons for this difference of conduct; 
and, indeed, that such really was the case, not the least doubt can 1 »e 
entertained. The truth is, that the circumstances which attended these 
two great battles, were entirely different in almost every respect. 

When Annibal prepared to fight against Scipio, he was not to cope, 
as before, with a presumptuous consul hurried on by the impetuosity of 
his courage into any danger and any snare that might be laid for him ; 
but with a commander equally brave and prudent, perfectly acquainted 
with every part of his duty, and his equal or nearly his equal in mili- 
tary science. The field of battle was not left to the option of the Car- 
thaginian leader ; he had to abide by the choice, which it was not in 
his power to reverse, already made by his opponent. ' Above all, 
though he was yet at the head of a respectable army in point of num- 
ber, (about fifty thousand men,) he could hardly place any reliance on 
the exertions of a great portion of his troops: he had no lb] 
numerous and indefatigable squadrons of Numidian cavalry, to which 
he owed so much of his former success, and was now in tin's respect 
inferior to the Romans, who had secured so great an advantage for 
themselves, by winning over King Massinissa to their side; nor had he 
many of those intrepid warriors that had accompanied him in his first 
campaigns, their number having been considerably reduced by previous 
battles : so that the greater part of his army consisted either of new 
levies or foreign auxiliaries, and soldiers who had reluctantly followed 
him from Italy. 

Under these unfavorable circumstances, what could Annibal do bet- 
ter towards insuring success, than 1. to endeavor, by making his 
numerous elephants advance at once, to produce confusion and disorder 



488 APPENDIX. 

among the Roman infantry ; 2. by directing successive charges to he 
made by his first and second line, to stop and weary the Roman sol- 
dier ; and at last, when things would be in tins condition, to make ' 
with the choicest men of his army a vigorous, and likely to prove, a 
decisive and successful effort? Now, this was exactly the admirable 
scheme contrived by Annibal, as plainly appears, not only from the 
order and formation of his troops as related above, but also from the 
concurrent testimony of the best historians in their description of this 
famous battle. What happy result could he not then have justly ex- 
pected from this masterly dispostion, had not a multitude of accidents 
winch it was not in his power to control, combined, as it were, to 
thwart and defeat his very best measures ? 

In the first place, his elephants failed to produce much effect, and, 
owing to the prudent orders of Scipio and to the intervals left pur- 
posely between the divisions of the Roman troops, were in a short time 
driven out of the field of action. Next to this, and when the battle 
began to rage between the first lines of the two armies, the Carthaginian 
auxiliaries, not seeing themselves actually sustained by the rest of their 
army, imagined that they were altogether forsaken, and giving way to 
despondency, retraced their steps with much confusion, and a dreadful 
havoc which they suffered both from the Romans in front and their 
own troops behind. This unfortunate circumstance also contributed to 
the defeat of their second line ; not, however, till after a very sharp . 
conflict, and prodigies of valor performed on each side. In the in- 
terim, Scipio's cavalry, headed by Massinissa and Laslius, had suf- 
ficient time, not only to rout and drive far from the field the Cartha- 
ginian cavalry, but also to hasten back to the assistance of the 
legionaries. 

Notwithstanding so many distressing accidents, so formidable still 
was the attitude of Annibal and his veterans, and so gallant their be- 
havior in the conflict, that the charges of the Roman infantry were 
repeatedly repulsed, and Scipio entertained for a time serious appre- 
hensions as to the final result of the battle. Indeed, his triumph was 
not achieved, till his victorious cavalry, being now returned from the 
pursuit of their opponents, attacked the enemy in rear and flank, and 
either cut them in pieces on the spot or scattered them in every direc- 
tion. Annibal had resisted up to the last moment : he had truly done, 
whether before or after the action, whatever could be expected from a 
consummate general, and such was his conduct as justly to elicit the 
admiration and praise of Scipio himself; "Omnia," says Livy, "et in 
prajlio et ante aciem, priusquam excederet pugna, expertus, et confes- 
sione etiam Scipionis omniumque peritorum militice illam laudem adep- 
tus, singulari arte aciem eo die instruxisse." (Hist. b. xxx, c. 35). — 
See also Polybius, b. xv, ext. 9-1G. 



APPENDIX. 489 

§IV. VICTOEY OF MARIUS OVER THE TEUTONES, AC- 
CORDING TO PLUTARCH.— Pp. 344-345. 

The two armies had reached the neighborhood of Aquaa S<\ti;<\ 
(now Aix in Provence), not far from the Alps, when the Amba 
who were reputed the bravest among the invaders, encountered a por- 
tion of the Roman army on the banks of a small river. The legion- 
aries ran to the assistance of their companions, and hence followed an 
engagement for which Marius, although the present occasion had teen 
unforeseen, was well prepared ; in effect, being now perfectly assured 
of the docility as well as the bravery of his troops, he was but waiting 
for a favorable opportunity to come up with the enemy and give them 
battle. The Ambrones, who had fearlessly crossed the stream to en- 
counter the Romans, were repulsed with terrible slaughter, and the 
river was filled with dead bodies ; nay, such as succeeded in reaching 
again the opposite bank, were cut off by the pursuers, while they 
fled to their camp and wagons, so that most of them perished on that 
day. 

The Romans, after having destroyed so many of the Ambrones, re- 
tired as it grew dark ; but they did not give way to joy and mirth, as 
might have been expected after so great a success : there were no songs 
of victory, no entertainments, nor, what is the most agreeable circum- 
stance to the victorious and wearied soldier, any sound and refreshing 
sleep. On the contrary, the night was passed in the greatest per- 
plexity and dread, because the Roman camp, as yet, had neither trench 
nor rampart, and there remained still many myriads of the barbarians 
unconquered. Besides these causes of alarm, the innumerable host of 
the Teutones, with whom the few surviving Ambrones had mixed, 
made the surrounding mountains, the banks of the river, and the whole 
plain, resoimd with their cries, which were not like the sighs and 
groans of men, but like the howling and bellowing of wild beasts. 
The Romans felt the impressions of terror, and Marius himself enter- 
tained apprehensions of a tumultuous night engagement. However, 
the barbarians did not attack them either that night or next clay, but 
spent the time in consulting how to dispose and draw themselves up 
in battle array to the best advantage. 

In the meantime, Marius observing the sloping hills and woody 
hollows that hang over the enemy's camp, despatched Claudius Mar- 
cellus with three thousand men, to lie in ambush there till the light 
was begun, and then to fall upon the rear of the barbarians. The rest 
of his troops he ordered to take the necessary food and rest in good 
time. The next morning, at the dawn of day, he drew up his forces 
before the camp, and commanded the cavalry to march into the plain. 
The Teutones, seeing this, could not contain themselves, nor stay until 
all the Romans were come into the plain below, where they might fight 
them upon equal terms ; but arming themselves hastily, advanced up 
to the hill. Marius despatched his officers through the various I 
of the army, with orders that they should stand still, and wait for the 



490 APPENDIX. 

enemy ; but when the barbarians would be within reach, the Romans 
were to throw their javelins, then take sword in hand, and pressing 
upon the foes with their shields, push them with all their might ; for 
he knew the place to be so slippery, that the enemy's blows could have 
no great force, nor could they preserve any close order, where the de- 
clivity of the ground rendered their steps unsteady and continually 
staggering. At the same time that he gave these directions, he was 
the first who set the example ; for he was inferior to none in personal 
agility, and in resolution he far exceeded them all. 

The Romans by their firmness and united charge, not only prevented 
the barbarians from ascending the hill, but also gradually forced them 
down into the plain. There the foremost battalions were beginning to 
form again, when the utmost confusion manifested itself in another 
part of the field ; for Marcellus, who had watched this opportunity, 
as soon as he found, by the noise which reached the hills where he lay, 
that the battle was begun, with great impetuosity and loud shouts fell 
upon the enemy's rear, and destroyed a considerable number of them. 
Such as escaped death, being pushed upon those before, the whole 
army was soon put in disorder, and the Teutones thus attacked both 
in front and rear, could not stand the double shock, but forsook their 
ranks and fled. The Romans, pursuing them, either killed or took 
prisoners above a hundred thousand, and having made themselves 
masters of their tents, carriages and baggage, voted as many of them 
as were not plundered, a present to Marius. This indeed was a noble 
recompense ; yet it was thought very inadequate to the service he had 
rendered in that great and imminent danger. 

After the battle, Marius selected from among the arms and other 
spoils, such as were elegant and likely to make the greatest show in 
his triumph, and set them apart. The rest he piled together, for the 
purpose of offering tbem up as a religious sacrifice. The army, 
crowned with laurels, stood round the pile ; and himself, arrayed in 
his purple robe and girt after the manner of the Romans, took a lighted 
torch. He had just lifted it up with both hands towards heaven, and 
was going to set the pile on fire, when some friends were seen gallop- 
ing towards him. Great silence and expectation ensued. When these 
men were come near, they leaped from their horses, and saluted Marius 
consul the fifth time, delivering him letters to the same purpose. This 
crowned the solemnity of the occasion with an increase of joy, which 
the soldiers expressed by acclamations, and by clanking their arms ; 
and while the officers were presenting Marius with new crowns of 
laurel, he set fire to the pile, and completed the sacrifice. — Plutarch in 
C. Marium. 



APPENDIX. 491 



§ V. OPINION OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE ON THE GREAT 
GENERALS OF ANTIQUITY. 

In one of his familiar conversations at St. Helena, Napoleon Bona- 
parte thus expressed his opinion on the merit of great generals and 
conquerors, especially those of ancient times : 

" A succession of great exploits cannot be the effect of mere chance 
and fortune ; it always proceeds from the combined efforts of science 
and genius. Great men seldom fail, even in their most perilous under- 
takings. Call to mind Alexander, Caesar," Annibal, and others of the 
same stamp : they were almost always successful. They did not be- 
come great men, because they had success ; but, because they were 
great men, they compelled success, as it were, to side with them. If 
we thoroughly examine the cause of their victories, we shall see with 
admiration that they were all owing to the efforts of their genius. 

6 * Alexander, who was scarcely more than a youth, conquered with 
a handful of men a considerable portion of the globe. Was his expe- 
dition a mere inroad, a transient torrent 1 No, indeed ; every thing 
in it was prepared with maturity, conducted with wisdom, and exe- 
cuted with boldness. Alexander showed himself at the same time a 
great warrior, a great politician, and a great law-giver ; unfortunately, 
when he reached the height of glory and success, Ms head became dizzy 
or his heart perverted. He had commenced his career in a manner 
worthy of Trajan ; he closed it in a manner worthy of Heliogabalus. 

" Julius Caesar, on the contrary, entered late upon the course of his 
public life, and after having been an idle and vicious youth, displayed 
in the end the qualities of a most active, generous and elevated soul. 
He stands indeed, as one of the most interesting and attractive figures 
among the public characters known in history. He conquered Gaul ; 
he obtained the upper hand at Rome. Could these have been achieved 
by mere chance and fortune ? 

" But what shall I say of Annibal, the most daring, and perhaps 
the most astonishing of all ; so bold, so sagacious, so magnanimous in 
every part of his undertaking; who, at the age of twenty-six years, 
contrived a scheme hardly conceivable, and executed what must have 
seemed impossible; who, cutting off from himself every facility of 
communication with his own country, went forward across unknown 
and hostile tribes, whom he must attack and conquer; who staled 
those summits of the Pyrenees and Alps that were deemed impassable, 
and purchased the privilege of selecting his field of battle and lighting 
in Italy, at the cost of more than one-half of his troops ; who occu- 
pied that same Italy, crossed it in every direction, and ruled over it 
during the space of sixteen years ; who twice placed the formidable 
power of Rome on the brink of its ruin, and did not let go Lis prey, 
till the grand lesson he had taught of lighting an enemy in the 
enemy's country, was turned against himself? Will any one believe 
that Annibal owed so many splendid feats and so much illustration to 
the mere caprices of blind chance and fortune ? Must not he have 



492 APPENDIX. 

been endowed with an uncommon mind, and fully conscious of the 
eminent degree of military science which he possessed, who being de- 
sired by his conqueror (Scipio Africanus) to manifest his opinion, did 
not hesitate to place himself, though vanquished, next to Alexander 
and Pyrrhus, to whom he gave the first rank among great generals?" 
As an illustration of the latter fact just mentioned by Napoleon, we 
shall observe that it is thought to have taken place at an interview 
between Annibal and Scipio, while the former resided at the court of 
Antiochus the Great, king of Syria, and shortly before the time when 
this prince declared war against the Romans. 



§VI. STATE OF LITERATURE AMONG THE ANCIENTS, 
ESPECIALLY THE GREEKS AND ROMANS. 

Our remarks on this subject will comprise History, Poetry and 
Oratory or Eloquence, as being the leading branches of polite litera- 
ture, and will refer almost entirely to Greece and Rome, the two 
countries which produced the greatest number of conspicuous orators, 
poets and historians. 

Poetry. — Of all the Greek poets who acquired a name for their 
poetical genius, Homer is unquestionably the first, not merely on ac- 
count of the remote antiquity in which he lived, but chiefly for the 
intrinsic merit and value of his writings. Born in one of the Grecian 
colonies of Asia Minor, probably at Smyrna, he flourished towards the 
year B. C. 900, nearly six hundred years after Moses, the leader of the 
people of God, and upwards of a hundred years after King David, 
both of them the most sublime of poets in their sacred Canticles and 
Psalms. Homer wrote, on the subject of the Trojan war and its chief 
actors, two epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey, which are consid- 
ered masterly productions, and have, from the beginning, elicited the 
admiration of all succeeding ages. 

Not long after Homer, appeared Hesiod, who wrote a poem on 
Mythology, and another on agriculture, much praised by both ancient 
and modern scholars. A few centuries later, Simonides and Pindarus 
signalized themselves, the former by his elegiac songs, and the latter 
by his beautiful and sublime odes, composed in honor of the conquerors 
at the Olympic games ; whilst, about the same time, Anacreon wrote 
elegant, though unfortunately too free, pieces of light poetry. 

The age of Pericles was the most fruitful in great poets, as it was 
likewise in other great men of every description : during that period, 
the dramatical art, especially with regard to tragedies, attained among 
the ancients its highest degree of perfection. The celebrated Athenian 
poet, iEschylus, one of the heroes who so gloriously fought at Mara- 
thon, Plataja and Salamis, had already much unproved this art by a 
better selection of his subjects, a more appropriate and lofty style, and 
g, more dignified appearance and deportment of the actors ; when, in 

* Memorial de Ste Helena, par le Comte de Las Cases, vol. vii, pp. 335-339. 



APPENDIX. 493 

his advanced age, he saw himself not only equalled, but even sur- 
passed, by a much younger poet, called Sophocles. The latter oom- 
posed, it is said, upwards of a hundred tragedies, of which 
only -are extant; all of them, indeed, master-pieces, that have 
merited for their author the first rank among the dramatical poets 
of antiquity. Yet, Sophocles himself met a worthy competitor in 
the person of his cotemporary and friend Euripides, a native of Sala- 
mi's, and the author of seventy-five tragedies, eighteen of which are 
extant. These two great poets excel each other in different points 
of view, and by a peculiar merit of their own; Sophocles being deci- 
dedly more tragical, lofty and sublime, and Euripides being more 
pathetic and moving: the preference, however, all things duly consid- 
ered, is generally given to Sophocles. Another just praise due to them 
both, is this: that their writings contain a large number of useful 
maxims and instructions for the improvement of morals and the regu- 
lation of life. They died about the same time (B. C. 405 or 406), and 
after them the merit of dramatical compositions among the Greeks de- 
clined as rapidly as it had risen before : for, not only Aristophanes 
and Menander, although greatly spoken of as comic poets', contented 
themselves with this less dignified kind of writing : the former, besides, 
disgraced his talents by his obscenities, butToneries and sarcastic style ; 
and hardly any thing remains of the productions of the latter. 

Whilst such was the state of literature among the Greeks, Rome, 
being far less advanced in this respect, hardly knew any tiling else 
than to wield the sword and subdue her enemies. At length, the con- 
quest of Greece and other enlightened countries inspired the Romans 
with a relish for the sciences, fine arts and literary productions ; and 
that relish soon began to show itself by its elfects. Towards the 
close of the Punic wars, Plautus and Terence distinguished them- 
selves as dramatical poets, and acquired a great renown, the one for 
his wild energy of action and style, and the other for his elegance 
and refined taste. Shortly after, Lucilius rendered himself celebrated 
for his satires, a sort of composition which he either invented or at 
least considerably improved. These poets, and some others of the 
same period, made a great advance towards the perfection of Latin 
poetry, and had the merit to be the forerunners of those great poets of 
the Augustan age, Horace, Virgil, Ovid, etc., Avhose names are men 
tioned in the beginning of Modern History, (p. 15). 

History. — If we except the Hebrews, whose sacred annals reach 
from the beginning of the world almost without interruption to the 
Christian era, history, among other nations, rose to a high position in 
literature much later than poetry. There lived, indeed, about the sixth 
century before the coming of Christ, men of great research and learn- 
ing, who undertook to preserve and transmit to posterity the know- 
ledge of those events which they could ascertain, such as Becataus of 
Miletus, Charon of Lampsacus, and Xanthus of Sardisj but the real 
founder and father, as he is called, of profane history, was Herodotus, 
born at Halicarnassus, an Ionian cit) r , about the year B. C. 485, fi'.o 
years after the celebrated battle of Marathon. 
42 



4.U APPENDIX. 

This great historian commenced his labors by travelling, for the sake 
of information, through Greece, Macedon, and several othe* countries 
of Europe, as well as of Asia and Africa. He, in fact, acquired by 
these travels, a very extensive knowledge, and was thus enabled to 
compose his history, which he divided into nine books, and the various 
parts of which he so well arranged and so skilfully connected together, 
as to make a work equally grand and interesting. If the author oc- 
casionally apj)ears too credulous and superstitious, tins should be 
viewed as the failing of Ins age rather than that of his mind, and be 
ascribed to the want of proper documents more than to any thing else ; 
in the main, Herodotus is confessedly a grave and learned as well as 
most pleasing narrator. The chief object he had in view was to relate 
the great national struggle between the Persians and Greeks, the result 
of which was so glorious and favorable to the latter, particularly to 
the Athenians : hence, when he publicly read his work, both at the 
Olympic games, and, as is commonly thought, in Athens also, he was 
heard with extraordinary joy and applause, nay with a sort of enthusi- 
asm which, among other manifestations, elicited the tears and roused 
the genius of an Athenian youth, himself destined to become one of the 
most conspicuous writers in history. 

This young man was Thucydides, afterwards one of the chief actors 
in the beginning of the Peloponnesian war. In the history which he 
soon undertook to write of this famous war, he did not pretend to 
imitate Herodotus, how much soever he had admired him, either as to 
the plan or manner of his narrative : he, on the contrary, resolved to 
relate the facts appertaining to his subject with the greatest possible 
precision and accuracy, and according to the strict order of time ; so 
much so that, rather than deviate in the least from this order, he does 
not pursue the recital of any event beyond the space of six months, 
and hesitates not to interrupt it, for the sake of placing before his 
reader other events of exactly the same period. What renders this 
production immortal, is the depth and exactness of research, impar- 
tiality of views, energy of style, liveliness of description, and manly 
eloquence in the speeches of the leading personages. 

Thucydides not having brought his history to the close of the Pelo- 
ponnesiamwar, Xenophon, likewise an Athenian, carried on the narra- 
tive of the same and other Grecian affairs, as far inclusively as the 
battle of Mantinea and the death of Epaminondas. This is also a 
truly valuable and important historical book, although it has neither 
the poetical arrangement and interest found in Herodotus, nor the 
admirable conciseness and impartiality of Thucydides; but a more 
celebrated work of Xenophon is the Anabasis, or Retreat of the Ten 
Thousand, in which he himself as a leader had the principal share. 
Finally, his chief and best production, according to general consent, is 
the Cyropedia, or history of the great Cyrus, a rich mine and most 
fruitful source of information equally for the general, the statesman, 
the moral philosopher, and the scholar. 

Besides Herodotus, Xenophon and Thucydides, Greece and her 
colonies produced many other historians of great merit. Not to men- 



APPENDIX. 495 

tion Plutarch, so well known for his lives of remarkable men, and 
Arrianus, the best liistorian of Alexander the Great, both of whom 

nourished in the second century af the Christian era; the following 

writers are peculiarly worthy of notice: Polyoma of Megalopol 
of the mot judicious authors of antiquity, win. wrote ' His- 

tory of his time, or nearly his own time, in forty books, most of which 
are unfortunately lost; — Diodorus Siculus, the anther of a justly 
Historical Library (the title of his work), or history of all the ancit it 
nations, also in forty hooks, of which fifteen only are extant; — and 
Dionysius Ilalicarnassus, the compiler of a considerable and learned 
work on Roman Antiquities. Of these three writers, the firs! livid 
during the second century before the coming of Christ; the other two 
lived under Julius Caesar and Caesar Augustus. 

About this time, also, Rome and the Latin language could boi 
a large number of excellent historians. Most of them, it is true, such 
as Livy, Paterculus, Trogus Pompeius with his abbreviates Justin, 
Quintus Curtius, Tacitus, etc., flourished only after the epoch by which 
we have closed Ancient History; yet, they may in some measure he 
referred to that epoch-, since they closely followed it and are gen< rally 
considered as belonging to the Augustan age; and besides, ancient 
Pome had already produced Julius Caesar, Sallust and Cornelius 
Nepos. The first of these placed himself in the first rank of historians 
by his Commentarii de bello Gallico ct hello Civili ; the second dis- 
played his eminent talent in the same kind of writing by his two 
books on the war of Jugurtha and the conspiracy of Catiline ; and the 
third, Cornelius Xepos, published his classical lives of illustrious gen- 
erals, which, although they do not raise their author to a footing Of 
equality with J. Csesar and Sallust, yet possess a real and great 
literary merit. 

Oratory. — The Greeks and Romans were not less conspicuous for 
their proficiency in the art of oratory or eloquence, than for their 
poetical and historical productions. Indeed, from the nature <>\' - 
cidedly democratical a form of government as was that of Athens, 
where all important questions were discussed and settled in the assem- 
blies of the people, it may easily be conjectured that oratory must have 
exercised the greatest influence among them. Such really was the 
case : Solon, Themistocles, Aristides, and others who were successively 
placed at the head of the public administration, proved themselves to 
be truly able speakers; Pericles, in particular, was bo excellent an 
orator, that the reign of eloquence is generally supposed to have com- 
menced with him, and his friend Alcibiades showed likewise 
talent in this respect. 

Next to these famous men, appeared Lysias, 
all of them greatly and justly renowned orators, either fox graceful 
and purity of style (the peculiar quality of Lysias). or f< i 
and harmony (Isocrates,) or for energy and strength (Isaeus). h 
came together these great rivals in oratory as well as politics, 1 1 
thencs and .Eschines, of whom we have spoken at some length in a 
separate chapter (pp. 221-224). The power and brilliancy of human 



496 APPENDIX. 

eloquence seemed to have been exhausted in them both ; nor could 'he 
splendid course of this art among the ancient Greeks have been better 
and more triumphantly closed than by these two powerful orators, 
especially by Demosthenes. 

Oratory did not possess less importance, nor exercise less influence, 
in Rome than in Athens ; nay, it may justly be said to have, from the 
establishment of the Roman commonwealth, become one of the essential 
requisites of successful government, especially in reference to political 
discussions. Doubtless, in the frequent disputes which arose between 
the senate and the people, many eloquent harangues must have been 
delivered by the consuls or senators on the one hand, and by the ple- 
beian tribunes or their abettors on the other, for the support of their 
respective claims ; but nobody thought of making a collection of them, 
and, although various speeches are ascribed by the Latin historians to 
the leading men of those times, yet it is hardly possible to judge from 
thence of the merit and talent of the supposed orators. For want, 
therefore, of safe documents, we will content ourselves with mentioning 
the names of those Romans of the latter times of the republic, who left 
behind them a great reputation for eloquence : they were Galba, 
Crassus and Mark Anthony (the triumvir's grand-father), at the bar; 
and the two Gracchi, with Cato and Sylla, in the general assemblies 
of the senate or the people. 

Under the following period, and just before the reign of Ca?sar 
Augustus, the art of oratory shone forth in all its lustre, and was car- 
ried to its perfection by Cicero, besides J. Csesar and Hortensius, his 
cotemporaries, and nearly his equals. Quintilian finds in Ca3sar a 
great precision and strength, and so much natural talent, as to remove 
even the smallest signs of labor in the composition of his harangues. 
Nothing remains from Hortensius ; but it is well known that, in point 
of eloquence, he was with regard to Cicero what iEschines had been 
with regard to Demosthenes. As for Cicero himself, unquestionably 
the first of Latin orators, since much has been said of him in this his- 
tory (pp. 370-373, and 409-410), it is unnecessary to speak any fur- 
ther here of his transcendent merit : there are certain names to which 
genius and talent of the highest order have attached so much renown, 
that the mere mention of them is enough to excite or revive universal 
admiration ; and such, in particular, is the case with Cicero. 



~A 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 

OP 

MEMORABLE EVENTS 

AND 

REMARKABLE PERSONAGES. 



N. B. The dates in the first column, denote the years in which the events 
happened ; — those placed in the second column, generally mark the year of the 
death of the persons therein mentioned. 



INTRODUCTION AND PART I. 



b. c. memorable events. 

4004 The Creation. 

3S76 The first death, or the murder of 

Abel. 
2348 The Deluge. 
2247 Dispersion of the sons of Noe. 
2233 Beginning of astronomical obser- 
vations at Babylon. 
From f About this time arose the mo- 
2245 J narchies of Babylon, Ninive, 
to "J China and Egypt, likewise of 
21S8 [ Sidon and the Phenicians. 
2089 The kingdom of Sicyon, the ear- 
liest in Greece, established. 
2000 Elamites ot Persians. 
1921 Vocation of Abraham. 
1912 His victory over four kings. 
1856 Rise of the kingdom of Argos. 

1582 Athens. 

1519 Thebes. 

1516 Lacedajmon or Sparta. 

1506 Troy. 

A little before or after the year 

f Alphabet brought into Greece 
by Cadmus. 
1500 -l Deluge of Deucalion in Thes- 
saly. 
[ Amphictyonic council. 
1491 Departure of the Israelites from 
Egypt — Passage of the Bed 
Sea — Promulgation of the An- 
cient Law upon Mt. Sina. 
1451 Israelites cross the Jordan and 

enter the land of promise. 
1376 Kingdom of Corinth. 



REMARKABLE PERSONAGES. 

Adam, the first man and father of all 
men, having lived 930 year?, died 
in the year b. c. 3074 — Mathusala, 
who lived 969 years, the longest life 
known, 231S. 



Neinrod, first conqueror — Menes oi 

Mesraim, first king of Egypt. 
Noe, aged 950 years, died b. c. 199S. 



Sem, Cham and Japhcth, the son? of 

Noe.— Sem died at the age of 600 

years, b. c. 1846. 
Abraham, patriarch, 182 1, aged 178 

years. Isaac, patriarch, 171 (">, aged 

180 years. 

Jacob or Israel, father of the twelvo 

tribes, died b. c. I 
Joseph, patriarch, and governor of 

Egypt, 1G35. 
Towards the same time, J< I 

triarch. 

Sesostris.the Egyptian conquer 
Aaron, first high priest of the 

law. 1152— .il-.-es, tlie inspired le- 
gislator of tlf Hebrews, 1 161. 
.Mue . legislator of the I i 



42 



498 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 



B. C. MEMORABLE EVENTS. 

, 1348 Kingdom of Mycena. 

Pelops the Phrygian reigns in 
Southern Greece, and gives it the 
name of Peloponnesus. 

IS 53 Argonautic expedition. 
Heroic times of Greece. 

1252 Building of the celebrated city of 
Tyre. 

1267 f Formation of the great and 

1200 { first Assyrian empire. 

1194 Beginning of the Trojan war. 

1184 Taking and destruction ©f Troy. 



REMARKABLE PERSONAGES. 

Perseus. 

Jason. 

Theseus, Hercules. 

Orpheus, musician, 1250. 

Gedeon, judge of Israel, died B. c. 

1236. \tq L * 

Ninus and Semiramis. 

Menelaus, Agamemnon, Achilles, Nes- 
tor, Diomedes, Ulysses, Ajax — Gre- 
cian chieftains. 

Hector, Sarpedon, JEneas — Trojan 
warriors. 



PART II. 



1182 JEneas in Italy. 
1152 Alba-longa built by Ascanius, 
the son of iEneas. » 

1104 The Dorians and Heraclidaa in- 
vade and occupy Peloponnesus. 
About this time, Grecian colonies 
in Asia Minor; Smyrna, Ephe- 
sus, Miletus, Halicarnassus, 
etc. 
1095 Israelites wish to have a king. 
On the contrary, Athens and 
Thebes become republics. 
1095 Victories of Saul over the Am- 
monites. 

1093 the Philistines. 

1074 the Amalecites. 

His repeated disobedience to 
God's orders. 
1055 His defeat and death. 

Signal success of David against 
all his enemies, especially 
1037 Against the Syrians. 
1004 Dedication of Solomon's temple. 
975 Schism of the ten tribes — King- 
doms of Israel and Juda. 
971 Jerusalem taken and plundered 

by Sesac, king of Egypt. 
957 Bloody battle between the Israel- 
ites and the Jews, in which 
the former lost five hundred 
thousand men. 
941 Signal victory of Asa, king of 
Juda, over Zara, king of Ethi- 
opia, and his million of soldiers. 
914 f Prosperity of the Jews under the 
889 \ the reign of Josaphat. 
About 880 Foundation of Carthage. 
About 800 Rise of the Macedonian 
kingdom. 
776 Beginning of the Olympiads. 



Jephte, judge of Israel, died b. c. 
1181. 

Samson, judge of Israel, 1117. 



Samuel, last judge of Israel, resigned 
b. c. 1095. 



Died b. c. 1057. 



David, king, died b. c. 1014 — Joas, his 
general, died the same year. 

Solomon, king, 975. 



Asa, king of Juda, 914. 

Homer and Hesiod, poets, flourished 

about this time, that is, between the 

years b. c. 944 and 844. 
Josaphat, king of Juda., 889. 
Lycurgus, legislator of Sparta, 884. 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 



499 



PART III. 



758 
to 
707 



B. C. MEMORABLE EVENTS. 

753 Building of Rome. 

747 Overthrow of the first, and rise of 
the second Assyrian empire. — 
Era of Nabonassar. 

743 ( First Messenian war against the 

722 ( Lacedaemonians. 

721 Samaria taken, and kingdom of 
Israel destroyed by the Assy- 
rians. 

713 Miraculous defeat of the Assy- 
rians under Sennacherib. 

y,^ | Grecian colonies in Sicily and 
-j Italy; Syracuse, Crotona, Sy- 
baris, Tarentum. 

708 Foundation of the kingdom of 
Media. 

685 Twelve kings in Egypt. 

681 Asarhaddon, king of Assyria, 
takes possession of Babylon. 

677 Manasses, king of Juda, is taken 
prisoner and carried in chains 
to Babylon. 
Towards the same time or shortly 
after, siege of Bethulia, death 
of Holofernes and rout of the 
Assyrian army. 

684 (Second Messenian war; total 

670 ( overthrow of the Messenians. 

669 Combat of the Horatii and Curi- 
acii. 

667 The city of Alba destroyed. 

633 Scythian invasion in Upper Asia. 

626 Ninive destroyed, and the Assy- 
rian empire transferred to Ba- 
bylon. 

610 Battle of Mageddo, in which 
King Josias was mortally 
wounded. 

606 Beginning of the Babylonian 
captivity. 

572 The ancient city of Tyre taken 
by Nabuchodonosor II, after a 
siege of thirteen years. Egypt 
also, laid waste and subdued 
by the Babylonians. 

561 Pisistratus usurps the sovereign 

power in Athens. 

562 (Prosperity of the kingdom of 
548 \ Lydia under Croesus. 

556 Successful campaign of Cyrus 
against the Assyrians. 

548 Decisive battle of Tliybarra be- 
tween Cyrus und Croesiu-. 



REMARKABLE PERSONAGES. 

Kings of Home. Kinrjs of Xin foe. 

N. B. The years mark the beginning of 
each reign. 
B. C. 
752 Romulus. 

747 Theglathphalasar. 

728 Salmanasar. 

714 Nunia Ponipilius ..Sennacherib. 

710 Asarhaddon. 

671 Tullus Hostilius. 

668 Saosduchinus or 

Nabuchodonosor I. 

648 Saracus. 

638 Ancus Martius. 

Ninive destroyed. 

Kin;/ a of Babylon. 

626 Nabopolassar. 

614 Tarquinius Priscus. 

605 Nabuchodonosor II. 

578 Scrvius Tullius. 

562 Evilmerodach. 

560 Neriglissor. 

556 Laborosochord. 

555 Labynit or Baltassar. 



Other remarkable men during this pe- 
riod. 

The .pious kings of Juda, Ezechias, 
who died b. c. 698, and Josias, 610. 

The holy prophets Isaias, 69S, and Je- 
remias, about 5S6. 

Archilocus, tho poet, flourished to- 
wards the j'ear b. c. 664. Aleams 
and Sapho, poets, a little before tho 
year 600. Nechao, kiii£ of Egypt, 
616-600. Solon, the celebrated le- 
gislator of the Athenians, in 59 I. 

The same epoch produced the six other 
Sages of Greece, viz : Thales, Clc- 
obulus, Chilo, Pittacus, Bias and 
Periander (see p. 88, note); likewise 
iEsop the fabulist, Anacharsis tho 
Scythian philosopher, and Epimeni- 
des, a Cretan poet. 



500 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 



B.C. 

538 



536 

536 

534 
529 
525 

522 
521 
516 

513 

509 

506 

501 

496 



493 
490 



480 



479 

470 
and 
450 
449 



451 
449 



449 
431 



MEMORABLE EVENTS. 

Babylon taken by Cyrus. Fall 
of the Babylonian empire ; and, 
by the accession of this prince 
to the throne in the year, 

Rise of the Persian monarchy. 



REMARKABLE PERSONAGES. 

About 457, lived Anaximander, a disci- 
ple of Thales, and one of the greatest 
astronomers of antiquity. 



PART IV. 



Edict of Cyrus in favor of the 
Jews — return from the Babylo- 
nian captivity. 

Murder of Servius Tullius, the 
sixth king of Rome. 

Death of Cyrus — Cambyses suc- 
ceeds him on the throne. 

Cambyses conquers Egypt, but 
fails in his expedition against 
Ethiopia. 

Usurpation of Smerdis. 

Accession of Darius Hystaspes. 

Revolt of the Babylonians sup- 
pressed. 

Unsuccessful campaign of Darius 
against the Scythians. 

The Tarquins expelled from 
Rome, and the Pisistratas from 
Athens — Rome and Athens 
republics. 

Darius invades and conquers 
India. 

Burning of Sardis. 

Battle of Lake Regillus, which 
crushed for ever the hopes of 
the Tarquins. 

Rise of the Plebeian tribunes. 

Persians invade Greece — are en- 
tirely defeated by the Atheni- 
ans in the battle of Marathon*. 

Invasion of Greece under Xerxes. 

Battles at the Thermopylae and 
Artemisium. 

Signal defeat of the Persians at 
Salamis, and of the Carthagi- 
nians in Sicily. 

Persians defeated again at Pla- 
taea and Mycale. 
f Decisive victories of Cimon over 

(the same enemy both by land 
and by sea, near theriver Eury- 
medonandthe island of Cyprus. 
Peace between the Greeks and 
the Persians. 

{Laws of the XII tables. 
Tyranny and expulsion of the 
Decemviri. 
{Splendor and prosperity of Athens 
under the administration of 
Pericl6S. 



The celebrated legislators, Pythagoras, 
Zoroaster and Confucius flourished 
towards the end of the preceding 
and the beginning of this period. 

Ezechiel, prophet, died b. c. towards 
574. 

Daniel, about 530. 

Pisistrates, the Athenian ruler, in 528. 

Anaximenes of Miletus, philosopher, 
towards the same time. 



Brutus, the first consul of Rome, in 509. 

Valerius Publicola, Roman consul and 
general, 503. 

Titus Lartius, first dictator, in 498. 

Aulus Posthumius, 2d dictator, and con- 
queror in the battle of Regillus, 496. 

Miltiades, general, the conqueror at 
Marathon, died b. c. 489. — Marcius 
Coriolanus banished the same year 
from Rome. 

Darius, king of Persia, died b. c. 485. 

Leonidas, king of Sparta, 480. 

Gelon,king of Syracuse, 473. — Xerxes, 
king of Persia, 473. — Aristides, gen- 
eral and statesman, about 472. — Si- 
monides, poet, about 468. — Themisto- 
cles, general, 466. 

JEschylus, poet, 456 — Cimon, general, 
449. 

About this time there flourished in Ju- 
dea, Esdras andXeheniias; in Rome, 
Q. Cincinnatus ; in Southern Italy, 
Zaleucus and Charondas, lawgivers ; 
in Persia, King Artaxerxes-Longi- 
manus ; and in Greece, a multitude 
of distinguished artists and scholars, 
such as Phidias, Scopas, Callicrates, 
Metagenes, architects ; the same 
Phidias, Polycletes, Myron, sculp- 
tors ; Polygnotus, Apollodorus, Zeu- 
xis, Parrhasius, Timanthes, painters ; 
Phrynis, Timothy, musicians; Ari- 
stophanes, poet; Lysias, orator; and 
Hippocrates, the ablest physician of 
antiquity. 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 



501 



B. C. MEMORABLE EVENTS. 

431 Beginning of the Peloponncsian 

war. 
430 Pestilence at Athens. 
429 ( Siege and destruction of the city 
426 I of Plataea. 
421 Peace of Nicias. 

The hostilities soon recommence. 

Entire defeat of the Athenian 
forces in Sicily. 

Battle of the Arginusae islands. 
Manifest injustice of the Athe- 
nian people towards their vic- 
torious generals. 

Battle of iEgos-Potamos, which 
put an end to the Peloponncsian 
wax*. 

Surrender of Athens to the Spar- 
tans. 

Athens under the Thirty Ty- 
rants — rescued from their ty- 
ranny by Thrasybulus. 
401 Expedition of Cyrus the Younger 
against his brother Artaxerxes 
Mnemon — Battle of Cunaxa. 

Retreat of the Ten Thousand — 
Trial of Socrates. 

Conquests of the Carthaginians 
in Sicily. 

They are defeated by the Syra- 
cusans. 

Defeat the Syracusans in their 
turn, and preserve their con- 
quests. 

The cities of Veii and Falerii 
taken by the Romans. 

League against Sparta. 

Spartans victorious at Coronea, 
are vanquished at Cnidos. 

Rome taken by the Gauls. 

Peace of Antalcidas. 

Lacedaemonians driven from 
Thebes. 

371 defeated at Leuctra, 

and stripped of their prepon- 
derance in Greece. 

Prosperity of Thebes under 
Epaminondas and Pelopidas. 

Consular dignity at Rome ren- 
dered common to the plebeians 
and patricians. 

Battle of Mantinea ; new defeat 
of the Lacedaemonians. 

Accession of Philip to the Mace- 
donian throne. 

Ochus, king of Persia, subdues 
his revolted provinces. 

First victories of the Romans 
over the Samnites. 



413 



406 



405 



404 



404 
403 



400 



410 
396 



333 



396 
384 
395 
394 

390 
387 
378 



366 



363 
360 



351 



343 



n EM ARK ABLE PERSONAGES. 

We may mention with still greater pre- 
cision as to the time, the following 
illustrious names : Herodotus, histo- 
rian, who died about the year b. c. 
440 j Pindarus, 436 ; Pericles, gene- 
ral, orator and statesman, 429 ; Ana- 
xagoras, philosopher, 428 ; Brasidas, 
general, 422 ; Nicias, general, 413 ; 
Sophocles, poet, 406; Callicratidae, 
general, 406; Euripides, poet, 405. 



Alcibiadcs, general, died 404. 



Socrates, moral philosopher, 400. 



Lysandcr, general, 395. 
Thucydides, historian, 391. 

Conon, general, about 390. 

Cleombrotus, king of Sparta, 371. 

Dionysius, tyrant of Syracuse. 368. 

In 365, died the great Camillas, who 
had been five times appointed, dicta- 
tor, and was considered the second 
founder of Rome, for having rescued 
that city from the Gauls. 

Pelopidas, general, 364 — Epaminon- 
das, general, 363. 

Xcnophon, philosopher, general and 
historian, 360. 

Agesilaus, king of Sparta, 356. 

Towards this time, Praxiteles, sculp- 
tor; — also three great Athenian 



502 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 



B. C. MEMORABLE EVENTS. 

(Wild heroism of M. Torquatus 
and D. Mus, consuls. Pinal 
subjection of the Latins to 
the Roman power. 
340 Seventy thousand Carthaginians 
defeated by six thousand men 
under Timoleon. 
338 Athenians and Thebans defeated 

by Philip at Chaeronea. 
336 Alexander succeeds his father on 

the throne. 
335 Conquers the Thebans, and ruins 

their city. 
334 Defeats the Persians at the Gra- 
nicus. 

333 at Issus. 

332 Visits Jerusalem — Subdues Tyre, 
Gaza and Egypt — Founds the 
city of Alexandria. 
331 Decisive battle of Arbellaa. 
330 Pall of the Persian empire. 

Further conquests of Alexander. 
Battle against Porus. 
324 Return to Babylon, and death 
of Alexander. 



REMARKABLE PERSONAGES. 

generals, Chabrias, Pphicrates and 

Timothy. 
Plato, philosopher, 348. 
IsEeus and Isocrates, orators. 
Timoleon, general, 337. 
Philip, king of Macedon, 336. 

Memnon of Rhodes, general, 333. 



Darius Codomanus, last king of Per- 
sia, 330 — Philotas and Parmenio, 
generals, 330. 

Callisthenes, philosopher, 327. 

About the same time, Lysippus, sculp- 
tor. 

Alexander the Great, 324. 



PART V. 



323 First partition of Alexander's 

empire. 
321 The Romans pass under the yoke 

at Caudium. 
["Repeated victories of the Ro- 
320 j mans over the Samnites, the 
290 I Umbrians, the Etrurians and 

[ the Gauls. 
312 Era of the Seleucidae. 
310 Daring expedition of Agathocles 

in Africa. 
306 Great victory at sea of Demetrius 

Poliorcetes over the Egyptians. 
304 Siege of Rhodes. 
301 Decisive battle of Ipsus — Final 

partition of Alexander's em- 
pire. 
300 Foundation of Antioch. 
290 f Final subjugation of the Sam- 
284 ( nites to the Roman power. 
280 Romans defeated by Pyrrhus. 
275 Pyrrhus defeated by the Romans. 
264 Beginning of the first Punic war. 
260 Naval battle of Mylae. 

256 of Ecnomus. 

255 Victories and subsequent defeat 

of Regulus. 
251 Achaean league under Aratus. 
250 Rise of the Parthian empire. 



Kings of Egypt, Kings of Syria. 

N. B. The years mark the beginning of 

each reign. 

323 Ptolemy Lagus. 

312 Seleucus Nicanor. 

285 Ptolemy Philadelphus. 

280 Antiochus Soter. 

261 Antiochus Theus. 

247 Ptolemy Evergetes. 

246 Seleucus Callinicus. 

226 Seleucus Ccraunus. 

223 Antiochus the Great. 

221 Ptolemy Philopator. 

204 Ptolemy Epiphanes. 

187 Seleucus Philopator. 

180 Ptolemy Philometor. 

175 Antiochus Epiphanes. 

164 Antiochus Eupator. 

162 Demetrius Soter. 

150 Alexander Balas. 

Most of the other sovereigns of these 
kingdoms are unworthy of notice. 

In other countries : Demosthenes, ora- 
tor, and Aristotle, philosopher, died 
b. c. 322— Antipater, general, 321— 
Phocion, general, 318 — Eumenes, 
general, 315 — Papirius Cursor, Ro- 
man dictator — Fabius Maximus Rul- 
lianus, consul — Antigonus, king of 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 



503 



MEMORABLE EVENTS. 



ty.r. ( Siege of Lilyboeuni — Close of the 
b J first Punic war— Sicily, a Ro- 



241 

225 



man province. 



222 
217 
218 



Battle of Tclamon between the 
Romans and the Gauls. 

of Sellasia between the 

Macedonians and Spartans. 

of Raphia between the 

Syrians and Egyptians. 
Beginning of the second Punic 
war; and victories of Annibal 
at the rivers Ticinus and Trebia. 

217 at Thrasymenes. 

216 at Cannae. 

212-11 The Romans take Syracuse and 

Capua. 
210-9 Success of P. Scipio in Spain. 
207 Signal defeat of Asdrubalin Italy. 
Spartans defeated at Mantinea 

by Philopoemen. 
Annibal recalled from Italy, 
and vanquished at Zama by 
Scipio — End of the second 
[ Punic war. 
197 Victory of the Romans over 
King Philip at Cynoscephala;. 

190 over Antiochus the Great at 

Magnesia. 

16S over Perseus at Pydna. 

Epirus and Illyria subdued by 
the Romans — Antiochus Epi- 
phanes persecutes the Jews. 
167 f Glorious achievements of Judas 
158 { Machabeus and his brothers. 

148 Macedon, a Roman province. 

149 (Third Punic war, and destruction 
146 i of Carthage. 

146 End of Grecian independence, 
and destruction of Corinth. 



206 



202 
201 



REMARKABLE PERSONAGES. 

"Western Asia, 301 — Apelles, painter, 
about 300 — Protogenes, painter — > 
iEschines,orator — Theophra*tes,phi- 
losopher — Euclides, mathematician 
— Demetrius Poliorcetes, gencral,284 
— Berosus, historian. 

Demetrius Phalereus, orator and states- 
man, about 283 — Manius Curius and 
Fabricius Luscinus,Roman consuls — 
Lysimachus, king of Thrace, 281 — 
Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, 272 — Zeno, 
philosopher, 264 — Epicurus, philoso- 
pher, 261 — Regulus, general, about 
250 — Arsaces, founder of the Par- 
thian monarchy. 

Agis, king of Sparta, 244 — Antigonua 
Gonatas, king of Macedon, 243 — 
Amilcar, general, 228 — Antigonu3 
Doto, king of Macedon, 220— Cleo- 
menes, king of Sparta, 219 — Hiero 
II, king of Syracuse, 215 — Aratus, 
general, 214 — Archimedes, geome- 
trician, 212 — Marcellus, Roman 
consul, 20S — Asdrubal, general, 207. 



Plautus, poet, 1S4 — P. Scipio Africa- 
nus, Annibal and Philopoemen, gen- 
erals, 183— Philip, king of Mace- 
don, 178 — Perseus, king of Macedon, 
168— Judas Machabeus, 161— Pau- 
lus JEinilius, Roman consul, 160 — 
Terence, poet, 159 — Cato the Censor 
and Masinissa, king of Xumidia, 
14S. 



PART VI. 



133 
112 
106 

105 
102 
101 

90 
88 
87 



86 
S4 



Destruction of Numantia. 

War against Jugurtha — Exploits 
[ of Metellus and Marius. 

The Romans signally defeated 
by the Teutones and Cimbri. 
TheTeutones and Cimbri utter- 
ly destroyed by the Romans 
under Marius. 

The Confederate War. 

Flight and adventures of Marius. 

Return and cruelties of Marius 
in Rome — First war against 
Mithridates. 

Battles of Chaoronea and Orcho- 
menus — Victories of Sylla. 

Peace with Mithridates. 



Jonathan, prince of the Jews, died 
B. c. 1 13 — Viriathus, the brave Lu- 
sitanian chieftain, 1 JO— Simon, 
prince of the Jews, 135 — Tiberius 
Gracchus, 133 — Scipio the Y 
oriEmilianus. 12!' — Cai 
121— llyrcan I, prince of the 
114 — Jugurtha, king of Numidia, 
105. 



Marius, general and seven times con- 
sul, 86. 



504 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 



B. C. MEMORABLE EVENTS. 

rf3 f Return of Sylla to Italy —his 

g 2 \ success and terrible retaliation 
( upon the Marian party. 

81-79 Dictatorship and resignation of 
Sylla. 

80-73 War against Sertorius. 

73-71 Spartacus. 

66 the pirates. 

74-64 Second and third wars against 
Mithridates — Splendid victo- 
ries of Lucullus and Pompey. 

65 Syria, a Roman province. 

64 Disturbances in Judea — Decline 
of the Jewish nation, and be- 
ginning of its subjection to the 
Romans. 

63 Catiline's conspiracy detected 
and suppressed. 

60 First Triumvirate. 

58 Beginning of the conquest of 
Gaul. 

53 Disastrous expedition of Crassus 
against the Parthians. 

52 The whole strength of Gaul van- 
quished by J. Caesar at Alesia. 

49 Civil war between J. Caesar and 
Pompey. 
Victories of Caesar 

48 at Pharsalia. 

47 in Egypt and Pontus. 

46 at Thapsus in Africa. 

45 at Munda in Spain. 

Caesar declared perpetual dictator. 

44 ' He is assassinated in the senate. 

43 Second Triumvirate. 

42 Battle of Philippi, and ruin of the 
republican party. 

40 Herod, an Idumean, made king 
of Judea, by the Romans. 

39 Power of Sextus Pompey. 

38 Victories of Ventidius over the 
Parthians. 

36 Success of Octavius against Sex- 
tus Pompey and Lepidus. 

35 Antony fails in his expedition 
against the Parthians. 
Wisdom of Octavius — extrava- 
gant conduct of Antony. 

32 New civil war. 

31 Battle of Actium. 

Egypt, a Roman province. 
Change of the Roman republic 
into an empire 



REMARKABLE PERSONAGES. 



Sylla, dictator, 78 — Sertorius, gene- 
ral, 73 — Spartacus, general, 71. 



Mithridates, king of Pontus, 64. 



Catiline, conspirator, 62. 

Lucullus, general, 57. 

Crassus, general, 53. 

Vercingetorix, the brave Gaulish 
leader. 



Pompey the great, 48. 

Cato the Younger, or Uticensis, 46 — 
Cneius Pompey, general, 45. 

Julius Caesar, the most famous and 
talented man of ancient Rome, 44 — 
Tullius Cicero, philosopher, states- 
man and the prince of Latin orators, 
43 — Brutus and Cassius, generals, 
42. 



Sextus Pompey, admiral, 35. 



Mark Antony, the famous triumvir, 30 
— Cleopatra, queen of Egypt, 30 — 
Sallust and Cornelius Nepos, histo- 
rians — Varro, the most learned of 
the Romans. 









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